MEXICO IN 1827 VOL. 11. Shortli) wili be puhlis/ied. SIX VIEWS of the great Towns of Zacatecas, Sombrehete, Catok ce, Tlalpujahua, Guadalajara and Valladoliu. not included in the present Work. Drawn upon the spot, and engraved by Mr. Pye. MEXICO IN 1827. BY H. G. WARD, ESQ. [S MAJESTY'S CHARG^ D'AFFAIRES IN THAT COUNTRY DURING THE YEARS 1825, 1826, AND PART OF 1827- IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1828. j: V''2/^ CONTENTS THE SECOND VOLUME. BOOK IV. THE MINES OF MEXICO. ■ Page. General Observations : subject, how divided . . 3 SECTION I. Comparative Statement of the Produce of the Mines du- ring a double term of Fifteen Years, before and since the Revolution of 1810, with the Proportion borne by the Produce to the Exports of the precious Metals du- ring the same period . . . .8 SECTION II. The Mining System of Mexico before 1810 ; Changes which occurred from that time till 1823, when the idea of Foreign Companies was first suggested. The number of these Companies now established in Mexico, with some account of their Outlay ; the Extent of the Un- dertakings in which they are engaged ; the Difficulties which they have had to encounter ; their Progress ; more particularly during my Residence in Mexico : — and State in 1827 . . . .47 VI CONTENTS. Page. SECTION III. Whether the large Capitals which have been remitted to Mexico, and invested in the Mines by British Subjects and on British Account, are likely to be productive of adequate Returns to the Adventurers ; and within what period it may reasonably be expected that these Returns will become sufficiently considerable to make the general Produce of the Country again equal, or ultimately ex- ceed, the Annual Average Amount derived from the Mines before 1810 . . . .98 SECTION IV. Some general Observations upon Mexico as a Mining Coun- try ; with an Inquiry as to the Probability of her being enabled by her Mineral i'reasvires to multiply her Com- mercial Relations with Europe, and to acquit the In- terest of whatever Loans she may have contracted there 143 Additional Remarks . . . .165 BOOK V. PERSONAL NARRATIVE. SECTION I. First Visit to Mexico in 1823. Journey from Vera Cruz to the Capital .... 171 SECTION 11. Residence in the Capital ; and Return to the Coast . 219 SECTION III. Second Visit to Mexico in 1 825. State of La Puebla. De- scription of Huehuetocaand Tczcuco. Route to Cuautla Amilpas ..... 256 CONTENTS. V]l Page. SECTION TV. Preparations for Travelling in Mexico. Journey to the Mining District of rialpujahua . . 308 SECTION V. Journal of a Tour to the Mining Districts of Zimapan, San Jose del Oro, La Encamacion, El Chico, Capula, and Real del Montt- . . . .330 SECTION VI. Visit to the Mines of Temascakepec, Angangeo, Tlalpuja- hua, and El Rancho del Oro . . • 37'> BOOK VI. SECTION I. Commencement of Journey to the Interior. State of Que- retaro. Zelaya, the Baxio, Guanajuato ; Mines of the Two Compatiies established there. Revenues and Re- sources of the State . . . .401 SECTION II. Road from Guanajuato to San Luis Potosi. Hacienda del Jaral. State of San Luis. Road to Catorce, and Mines of that District .... 4C4 SECTION III. Journey from Catorce to Sombrerete. Mines of that Dis- trict . . . . .510 SECTION IV. Journey from Sombrerete to Durango. Account of that State. Mines of Guarisamey, and the Sierra Madre in general. Eastern Frontier, Texas. States of Sonora and Cinaloa. Gulf of California. Mazatlan anl Guay- mas. Mines of Arispe, Alamos, Mulatos, and Cosala. General Observations upon the North of Mexico . •'>10 viii CONTENTS. Page. SECTION V. Return from Durango to Sombrerete. Zacatecas. Mines of Veta Grande, and of the United Company. Road through the States of Guadalajara and Valladohd, by Ozu- matlan and Tlalpujahua to the Capital. Some Account of States of Mexico, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Tabasco ..... 612 SECTION VI. Return to England by the United States. Character of the Creoles. Feelings of the Country w ith regard to the present System. Conclusion . . . 700 MEXICO IN 18^27. BOOK THE FOURTH. VOL. II. MEXICO IN 1827. BOOK IV. THE MINES OF MEXICO. GENERAL OBSERVA- TIONS. SUBJECT, HOW DIVIDED. The large capitals which have been invested by British subjects, during the last four years, in the Mines of Mexico, and the differences of opinion that have prevailed, upon this side of the Atlantic, with regard to these speculations, induced me, at a very early period of my residence in New Spain, to de- vote a good deal of attention to this subject, and to endeavour to turn my stay in the country to account, by collecting all the information respecting it, that it was possible for me to obtain. I had not, how- ever, prosecuted my enquiries long, when the inves- tigation, which private curiosity had prompted me to undertake, became a public duty. Circular orders having been transmitted to all his Majesty's Agents in the New World to endeavour to ascertain the exact amount of Silver raised, and exported, in the B 2 4 MEXICO IN 1827. countries in wliich they severally resided, during a term of tliirty years ; an account of which was to be forwarded to Government, together with an esti- mate of the probable future produce. In the execution of these orders, I was obliged to embrace the question of Mining, (in as far as Mexico is concerned,) in the greatest possible extent ; for it was necessary to procure, and embody, all the most authentic data now extant, with regard to the former produce of the Mines, and the proportion borne by that produce to the exports of precious metals from all the different ports of New Spain, before I could feel myself warranted in hazarding an opinion, at all, upon a subject so vast, and so important in all its bearings. The future produce of the country, again, de- pended, in a great measure, upon the issue of the present attempt to work the Mines by the i.id o? Fo- reign Cajiital ; while the probability of bringing each of the several undertakings, in which this capital is invested, to a more or less favourable conclusion, could only be ascertained by putting myself into com- munication with the Directors of the different Com- panies, and by visiting, in person, such of the prin- cipal Districts as were not so very far removed from the Capital, as t(» render it impossible to reach them, without a sacrifice of time, of which my other occupations would not admit. In the course of these enquiries I have collected a considerable mass of information ; and although, iMRXICC) IN 1827. 5 from my total ignorance of mineralogy, I have de- rived less benefit from my personal observations than I might have done, had I been better prepared for the task, yet, in one respect, this very deficiency may have proved an advantage, since it compelled me to confine my investigations to subjects, of which I was better able to judge than of the quality of the ores ; viz. the mode in which the general proceedings of the Companies have been conducted ; the feelings of the Natives with regard to them ; the local advantages which they possess ; the dif- ficulties which they have had to surmount ; the extent of the outlay of each ; the progress already made in their respective works ; and the expecta- tions which that progress seems to warrant, with regard to the future. Upon all these points, the opinion of an impartial observer will not (I hope) be unacceptable to those engaged in Transatlantic Mining adventures; while, to others, it may be interesting to learn in how far those denunciations of fraudulent schemes, and Stock Exchange speculations, with which the Press has abounded during the last two years, and to which property to such an extent has been sacrificed, are, or are not founded, in as far as regards New Spain. It will be necessary, in order at once to satisfy curiosity, and to remove all reasonable causes of doubt, to enter into this subject at considerable length. I shall therefore divide what I have to 6 MEXICO IN 18-27. communicate, into four Sections, which will embrace the following points : — First Section. A Comparative Statement of the Produce of the Mines of Mexico during a double term of fifteen years, before, and since, the Revolution of 1810, with an account of the exportation of Specie, during the same period. Second Section. The Mining System of Mexico before 1810: the changes which occurred from that time till 1823, when the idea of Foreign Companies was first suggested : the number of these Companies now established in Mexico ; their outhy ; the ex- tent of the undertakings in which they are engaged; the difficulties with whicK they have had to contend ; their progress and state in 1827. Third Section. Whether the large Capitals which have been remitted to Mexico, and invested in the Mines, by British subjects, and on British account, are likely to be productive of adequate returns to the Ad- venturers ; and, within what period it may rea- sonably be expected, that those returns will be- come sufficiently considerable to make the general produce of the Country equal, or even exceed, the annual average amount derived from the Mines before the year 1810? MEXICO IN 1827. 7 Fourth Section, Some general Observations upon Mexico as a Mining Country, with an enquiry as. to the proba- bility of her being enabled, by her mineral treasures, to multiply her commercial relations with Great Britain, and to acquit the interest, of whatever loans she may have contracted there. The answers to these Queries, in conjunction with the statistical details contained in the Vth and Vlth Books of this work, which will consist, principally, of an account of my journey to the Mining districts of the Interior, will convey nearly all that I have to communicate upon a subject, the importance of which, both to Mexico and to England, rose in my estunation with every step that I took in my inves- tigations respecting it. Nor do I despair of convey- ing a similar impression to my readers, provided they will divest themselves of those hastily conceived opinions, by which judgment is so often warped, and under the influence of which it is as useless to affect to search for truth, as it is impossible to at- tain it. MEXICO IN 1027. SECTION I. Before I enter upon the enquiry which is to form the subject of this Section, viz. " A compara- tive statement of the produce of the Mines, during a double term of fifteen years, before and since the Revolution of 1810, with the proportion borne by the Produce to the Exports of the precious metals, during the same period ;" it is necessary to premise, that it is almost impossible, from the want of authen- tic data, to institute any exact comparison between the quantity of Gold and Silver raised in any two years of these two periods, or to fix the proportion borne by it, in each year, to the Exports. The utmost that can now be attempted, is, to form a reasonable estimate of the total Produce, and to- tal Exports, of each fifteen years, without pretending to arrive at an exact analysis, the materials for which no longer exist. During the Civil War, the Archives, not only of the College of Mines, (to which Hum- boldt had access, and by which the produce of each separate District might have been ascertained,) but MEXICO IN 1827. 9 of almost all the Mining Deputations,* were de- stroyed ; and, after the most diligent enquiries, both in the Capital, and the Interior, I have been able to obtain but few, and scattered remnants of those va- luable documents, which had accumulated in the great mining Provinces, during the three preceding centuries. Even the registers of the sums paid into the Cajas Provinciales, (Provincial Treasuries) as the King's Fifth, have disappeared ; and their loss is the more to be regretted as they would have fur- nished data, upon which the total Produce might have been easily, and correctly computed. The Coinage, therefore, is the only standard that can now be adopted ; and although this, from its nature, cannot comprehend the whole amount of the precious metals raised, (some portion of which, in each year, was not converted into dollars,) yet, if about One million of dollars be added to the average of the Mint Returns, for Silver not registered at all, and registered Silver worked up into plate, (the abundance of which, in Mexico, was, at one time, proverbial,) there will not, I believe, be any reason to suppose that the actual Produce of the country, during the fifteen years which preceded the Revo- lution, much exceeded the estimate thus formed. With regard to the Second Period, which com- mences with the Civil War, the difficulty of forming * Vide Section II. for an explanation of this term. 10 MEXICO IN 1827. any correct calculation of the annual produce of the country, is much increased. The returns of the Mint of Mexico are of no avail, as, during the years 1810, 1811 and 1812, Mints were established at Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Guadalajara and Diirango, with which the Mint of the Capital had no connexion, and over which it exercised no control. Nor do the returns of all these establishments combined, lead to a more satisfactory result ; for there are many obvious reasons why they cannot be regarded as affording a correct estimate of the Produce : 1st. Because a large proportion of the Silver sent to the Mints was not Silver then extracted from the mines, but Plate belonging to Churches and private families, the whole of which was melted down during the Revolution, in order to supply the rapid decrease of the circulating medium. 2ndly. Because the Coinage in the Provincial Mints was so bad,* and the quantity of base metal used as alloy so great, that even a correct account of the number of dollars struck off", would not be found to give a just idea of the quantity of Silver, which they contained. 3rdly. Because, of the large sums which passed through the hands of the Revolutionary Chiefs, * The dollars wliich have survived this period of disorder, are now only taken at a discount of from fifteen to twenty per cent. MEXICO IN 1827. 11 (some of whom worked mines of considerable im- portance,) no account was ever given. And, 4thly. Because the gold contained in the silver, (a great abundance of which is found in the ores of some mines,) was never properly separated from it, after the communication between the Interior and the Capital was closed. None of the Departments possessed a Casa del Apartado, (in which the che- mical process of separating the two metals, when combined, is performed ;) and, although some por- tion of the gold may have been obtained by the use of quicksilver in the Arastres, (crushing mills,) whatever remained incorporated with the silver was sacrificed ; and, as the amount of gold, produced annually, before the Revolution, averaged 1,100,000 dollars, (a great part of which passed through the Casa del Apartado,) this loss, in fifteen years, must have amounted to a very considerable sum.* These observations sufficiently prove the unavoid- able inaccuracy of any estimate that can now be formed, respecting the amount of the precious me- tals raised from the Mines of Mexico, during the fifteen years immediately subsequent to the Revo- lution : but having pointed out the difficulties that * I have myself seen ores from Guarisamey, at the Mint of Durango, which contained 2100 grains of gold to the Marc, (there are 576 grains in the ounce.) The mine of Rayas has produced ores containing 2700 grains ; and 550 grains per Marc is by no means an uncommon ley de oro (proportion of gold) in the mine of Villalpando, at Guanajuato. 12 MEXICO IX 1827. must be encountered, and the impossibility of so entirely surmounting them as to arrive at any very accurate conclusion, I shall proceed, without farther preamble, to state the results of my enquiries with regard to the Produce and Exports of each of the two periods under consideration. By the annexed Table, (No. 1,) it appears that the registered Coinage of the Mint of Mexico, from the year 1796 to the year 1810, (inclusive,) amount- ed to 342,114,285 dollars; which gives an average of 22,807,619 dollars for each year. To this I should add for Silver, (registered and unregistered), not coined, 1,192,381 dollars ; thus giving Twenty- four millions of doUars as the whole annual average Produce of the Mines of Mexico during the fifteen years which immediately pre- ceded the Revolution of 1810. The registered Exportation from Veracruz, during the same period, on the account of the merchants, was, according to the Balanza General, or Annual Report of the Consulado of Veracruz, Dollars. To Spain (in fifteen years) . 91,340,275 To Spanish America . . 22,251,822 To Foreign Countries direct, ni 1806- 7-8, and 9 . . . 27,892,903 Total . 141,485,000 The Average Commercial Exportation, therefore. MEXICO IN 1827. 13 to tlie East, in the fifteen years, would be 9,432,333 dollars, 2 reals.* The Exports of the Royal Treasury (not included in the Balanza General,) are not to be ascertained by any recent document ; I have, therefore, been forced to take as the basis of my present calcula- tion, Humboldt's Table of the Exports on the King's account, to Spain, and to the Spanish Colonies, during a term of thirteen years, (from 1779 to 1791,)t which gives 108,428,677 dollars as the Total, or 8,340,667 dollars, 3 reals, as the annual average amount of each of the thirteen years. To these, again, must be added 2,000,000, or 2,500,000 dollars, as the annual amount of illicit extraction by those engaged in the smuggling trade ; most of the articles thus introduced being paid for in specie upon the spot. The total annual Exports appear, therefore, to have been : From Veracruz Dollars. Rs. On Merchant's account . . - 9,432,333 2 On King's account . . . 8,340,667 3 Carried forward 17,773,000 5 * The Average of Commercial Exports given here differs from that given in the Analysis of the Balanza General, in the last Section of the preceding Book, in as much as the calculation there embraces a term of twenty-five years ; while here it only comprehends fifteen years, and ends exactly at the time when the registered commercial Exports began to decrease. t Vide Essai Politique, Book V. Chapter XII. page 444, 8vo edition. 14 MEXICO IN 1827. Dollars. Rs. Brought forward 17,773,000 5 From Acapulco (on both) . . 1,500,000 Contraband Trade . . . 2,500,000 Total average value of Exports 21,773,000 5 Allowing 227,000 dollars more, on each year, for the Contraband Trade which appears to have in- creased in value in each successive year, although its exact amount cannot be ascertained, we shall have a total Exportation of Twenty-two millions of dollars, to set against a total Produce of Twenty- four millions ; so that, during the fifteen years that preceded the Revolution, the amount of the precious metals that accumulated in Mexico would appear to have been Thirty millions of dollars. This estimate differs materially from that given by Baron Humljoldt, who did not conceive, at the time of his visit, that the annual produce of the mines exceeded twenty -three millions of dollars. This calculation wa§ perfectly natural in 1803, the average of the Coinage, from 179G to that year, having only been 21,750,249 dollars ;* to which lIunil)oldt adds 1,249,751 dollars, for silver not included in the Mint Returns. But the Coinage from 1803 to 1810 inclusive, * Tho .Aliiit Returns from l^J^d to 1H()3 (inclusive,) give 174,001,Oi)<{ dollars as the Total Coinage during the eight years. MEXICO IN 1827. 15 averaged 24,016,182 dollars (the total amount ol' the dollars registered in the Mint of Mexico, in these seven years, having been 168,113,278): and this circumstance sufficiently accounts for the dif- ference in the average produce of the whole term, as given in the Essai Politique, and in the present calculation. With regard to the benefit actually derived by the country from its mineral treasures, or, in other words, the annual addition to the circulating me- dium, (after paying the difference between the Im- ports and Exports, and the remittances on the account of the Royal Treasury,) which Humboldt estimates at One million of dollars in each year, the increased Produce likewise accounts for the increase in the annual accumulation, which I have estimated at Two millions of dollars. I have no data that will warrant me in rating the average annual Exports, during the fifteen years now under consideration, higher than I have done, viz. : Twenty-two millions of dollars ; although, if we divide that term into two periods, of eight and seven years, (from 1796 to 1803, and from 1804 to 1810 inclusive,*) we shall find the Average of the Commercial Exports to have varied from 8,561,753 dollars, to 12,105,047 dollars. In the Exports of the Royal Treasury, I do not believe that there was * Total Exports from 1796 to 1803, (Venicruz) 5«,8.59,7 12,082,030 same amount as 1824)* . ) Total 39,045,223 Or, with the Imports of the tenK^^^^^g^^^^ preceding years, . . .} From this amount must be deducted 27,770,774 dollars for the registered Exports of Agricultural Produce during the fifteen years under consider- ation ; but this still leaves a balance against Mexico ; the registered Imports being (with all deductions made) 105,557,469 dollars, and the registered Ex- ports 94,462,427 dollars. The difference (11,095,042 dollars) must have been covered by the illicit ex- traction of Gold and Silver to that amount ; there being no article of Agricultural Produce, with the exception of Cochineal, sufficiently valuable to hold out a similar inducement for contraband Trade. The registered shipments of Cochineal by Old Spa- " The Imports for these years, include those of Alvarado ; Veracruz having been nearly abandoned as a port in 1823, as stated in the preceding Section. 30 MEXICO IN 1827. iiiards, who took this mode of making remittances to Europe, amounted in five years, (from 1821 to 1825) to 7,451,992 dollars ; and as this bears a fair proportion to the Produce, ( Vide Book I. Sect. III.) it is not to be presumed that the illicit extraction can have been very great. My object in thus comparing the Exports of specie with the Imports of European Manufactures, (which may appear, at first, to have no immediate connexion with the question now under consider- ation,) is, to show that no part of the Spanish pro- perty withdrawn from the country since the com- mencement of the Revolution, can be comprehended in the registered Exportation from Veracruz, since the total amount of the Exports does not cover the total amount of the registered Imports, but leaves a balance of 11,095,042 dollars, to be paid by some other channel. In the other ports it will be impossible for me to attempt a similar comparison, as I have not been able to obtain returns of Imports of any kind. I must, therefore, confine myself to a statement of the amount of the entries of the precious metals shipped in each port ; and even these are Ijut little to be de- pended upon, as the gentleman, to whom I am in- debted for the extracts from the Registers of Sjin Bias and Miizatlan, informed me that, in the opinion of the oldest merchants upon the Western coast, the I'e- gistered Exports did not amount to above one half of the 7'eal amount of the Silver exported ; in which MEXICO IN 1827. 31 opinion Mr. Barcaiztegui, from whom I received similar returns of the Exports from Acapulco, fully coincided. Having premised this, I shall annex the results of the enquiries of these gentlemen, in one Tal)le, without adding, as pieces Jiistijicatives, the original Returns, which are in ray possession, but are too voluminous for insertion. Amount of Specie exported. Years. San Bias. JMazutlan. Acapulco. 1810 13,000 1811 25,883 1812 24,461 1813 346,884 108,331 1814 records missing 746,000 1815 1,276,629 608,106 1816 672,222 511,655 1,288,578 1817 757,086 343,719 154,000 1818 records lost ditto 391,217 1819 ditto ditto 218,689 1820 652,400 33,510 692,477 1821 1,570,542 23,191 1822 1,527,530 10,309 37,250 1823 1,054,708 84,420 223,000 1824 787,055 118,.560 35,600 1825 182,243 8,827,299 165,797 57,075 Total 2,622,076 3,292,752 From Guaymas, there are no leturns ; nor is any 32 MEXICO IN 1827. account whatever of Imports to be obtained from San Bias, on the West ; or from Tampico, or any other port to the North of Veracruz, on the Eastern coast, during the period to which my enquiries are limited. It is probable, however, that the registered Ex- ports from San Bias and Mazatlan, do not more than cover tlie amount of the Imports : as, from the moment that the port of San Bias was opened to Foreign trade by General Cruz, in 1812, the value of the European manufactures with which the Table- land was supplied, through this channel, can hardly have been less than the average amount of the Ex- ports of the Twelve years, viz. : 735,608 dollars. At San Bias, therefore, as at Vei'acruz, no al- lowance can be made upon the registered Exports of Specie for the property of Old Spaniards transferred to Europe; the Exports being hardly equivalent in value to the European Imports. The same may be said of Aciipulco and Maziitlan : yet, the Spanish property actually realized, and abstracted from the cajntal of the country as it existed in 1810, is cal- culated by the best-informed Mexicans, (as I have stated in Section V. of the last Book,) at from Eighty, to One hundred and forty miUions of dollars. Let us first, therefore, see the amount of the whole registered Exports, and then consider the ad- ditions which must be made to it. The value in dollars of the Exports from Vera- cruz, was : — MEXICO IN lti27. 33 Dollars. From 1811 to 1820 . . 68,291,206 From 1821 to 1825 . . 26,171,221 San Bias (in the fifteen years) . 8,827,299 Mazatlan (ditto) . . 2,622,076 Acapulco (ditto) . . . 3,292,752 Total, in fifteen years . 109,204,554 Of the Exports on the King's account, which are not included in this estimate, nothing certain is known ; but, from the difficulty which the Viceregal Government experienced from 1811 to 1817, in raising funds to meet the exigencies of the moment in Mexico, I am induced to believe that, during the whole of that time, no remittances to Madrid can have been made. The Tobacco monopoly, and the duties upon Gold and Silver, of which the " sobrante liquido, remisible,' was composed before the Revo- lution, failed entirely ; and, although new taxes were substituted for them, these were barely suffi- cient to defray the expenses of the war. After 1816, things became more settled, and some trifling re- mittances were made, which ceased again entirely upon the declaration of Independence in 1821, so that I should not calculate them in all, during the whole fifteen years, at more than ten millions of dollars.* * This is merely a supposition, open both to inquiry and cor- rection; for, with regard to the Royal Export?, I have no data to vol.. II. D 34 MEXICO IN 1827. With regard to the Smuggling Trade, this was by- no means the case, for, if the demand for European manufactures became less amidst the general distress, the profits of the illicit trader increased ; the facility witli which goods were introduced being propor- tionably greater, and the reduction in the price consequently, such as to enable him to defy com- petition. I do not, therefore, conceive the amount of the Contraband Trade ever to have fallen below the average before the Revolution, viz. two, or two and a half, millions of dollars. We must, therefore, make the following additions to the registered Exports as given above, viz. : — • Dollars. 109,191,454 Remittances to Royal Treasury . 10,000,000 Smuggling Trade, in fifteen years, taken at something below the aver- age amount before 1810 . . 34,910,953 Allowance for the Exports of three years, the Returns for which have been lost at San Bias, taken at the average of the other twelve, viz. 735,608 dollars . . . 2,206,824 Balance of the excess of registered Imports in fifteen years at Veracruz 11,095,042 Total . 167,404,273 guide me. They probably exceeded my estimate considerably, in which case, the value of the Spanish property remitted to Europe might be still farther diminished. MEXICO IN 1827. 35 This I regard as the amount of the ExjDorts, in gold and silver, that must, necessarily, have taken place, in order to cover that portion of the Imports from Europe, that remained unpaid, after deducting the whole of the exportable national Produce ; with the addition of ten millions only as remittances to Madrid. The Spanish Property remitted to Europe con- stitutes, therefore, nearly the whole of the unregis- tered Exports, the amount of which must be en- tirely a question of conjectural evidence ; there being no data whatever upon which a calculation could be formed. We must, therefore, be guided by a few leading points, which seem to require more particular attention. The First of these, is the well-known fact that, before the Revolution, two-thirds of the capital of the country were in the hands of Spaniards, who engrossed the whole commerce of Mexico, and were, likewise, most extensively engaged in agriculture and mines. The Second, is the equally well-ascertained fact, that almost all these Spaniards have quitted the country, and that the depressed state of the Mines, of Agriculture, and of Trade, is due, in a great measure, to the withdrawing of those capitals, by wliich they were formerly supported. The Third, is the curious circumstance which I have endeavoured to develope in the preceding pages, namely, that no portion of this capital can be in- D 2 .SG MEXICO IN n\2i. eluded in the registered Exports, to the amount of which it must consequently be added. Having arrived at this conclusion, it remains to fix the sum, at which the capital actually withdrawn in Specie must be estimated. The lowest calculation of the Mexicans upon this subject is eighty millions of dollars, while many go as high as one hundred and forty millions. The last is utterly impossible, for the Minimum of eighty millions would leave the country without any circulating medium at all. I have supposed seventy-two millions to have been the accumulation of the precious Metals in Mexico in 1810 ; which, with the whole produce of the mines up to 1825, gives a total capital of two hundred and thirty-seven millions of dollars. If we add to the Exports, as given in the preced- ing pages, (167,404,273 dollars,) eighty millions of doUai'^ more, we should reduce the currency of New Spain in 1827 to ten millions of dollars less than nothing. I should be inclined, therefore, to take one third of the registered Exports, (109,204,554 dollars,) as a reasonable estimate of those of which no entry was made. Dollars. This would give . , . 36,401,518 which, added to the total Exports, (according to my estimate of their amount) . . . 167,404,273 gives a Total of 203,805,791 MEXICO IN 1827. "il and this, again, leaves about thirty-three Millions of dollars as the circulating medium of Mexico at the present day, after allowing nearly thijty-six millions and a half for the Spanish capital with- drawn since the commencement of the Civil War. The extreme scarcity of money that has been felt in Mexico during the last two years, renders the result given by this calculation by no means improbable. In 1810, with a currency of seventy-two millions, and a clear surplus produce of two millions more, which appears to have been the case during the seven last years before the Revolution, nothing could equal the facility with which advances were ob- tained for every useful, or even useless, project. In 1826, with a currency reduced to thirty-three mil- lions, and a produce of eight, (the whole of which is requii'ed to cover the Imports alone,) three per cent, per month has been paid in the capital for specie, and that, too, where security was given for the full amount of the advances, by deposits of goods. As it is to the Mines that we must look for the source of every future improvement in Mexico, I shall endeavour, in the subsequent parts of this book, to point out the manner in which their pro- gress is likely to be affected by the present scarcity, which, operating, as it were, in a vicious circle, checks the produce of that, by which alone it can be itself relieved. Here, it will be sufficient to state the con- clusions which may be drawn from the facts detailed in the jjreceding pages, with regard to the point .y"o 38 MEXICO IN 18-27. more immediately under consideration, viz. : the comparative Produce and Exports of the Precious Metals in Mexico : — they appear to be, 1st. That the annual average Produce of the Mines of Mexico, ])efore the Revolution, amounted to twenty-four millions of dollars, and the average Exports to twenty-two millions ; and, 2ndly. That, since the Revolution, the Produce has been reduced to eleven millions of dollars, while the Exports in specie have averaged 13,587,052 dollars in each year. To this I may add that the produce has decreased latterly, in consequence of the sudden abstraction of that portion of the Spanish capital, that still remained in the country, after the declaration of Independence in 1821. The Old Spaniards, who had survived the first years of the Revolutionary War, (in the course of which many transferred the whole bulk of their con- vertible property to Europe,) retained a sufficient portion of their funds in circulation to give a certain activity to trade, and to the mines, in which most of them were, directly, or indirectly, engaged. The Produce rose in consequence, (as tranquillity and confidence were restored,) from Four millions and a half of dollars (to which it had fallen in 1812) to Six, Nine, Eleven, and Twelve millions, which was the amount of the Coinage, in 1819, in the Capital alone. In 1820, the Revolution in Spain, and the ap- MEXICO IN 1827. 39 prehension of the effects which it might produce in Mexico, caused a considerable fluctuation, and the Coinage of the year in the Capital fell to 10,406,154 dollars. In 1821, when these apprehensions were realized, and the separation from the Mother-coun- try became inevitable, the whole disposable capital, that had remained till then invested, was withdrawn at once, and the coinage in Mexico sunk to five mil- lions ; from which it fell to three and a half, at which it continued during the years 1823 and 1824. In 182,5, the foreign capitals recently invested began to produce some effect ; but, in 1826, the total amount of the coinage in the five mints of the Mexican Republic did not exceed 7,463,300 dollars, as will appear by the Table, marked No. 12. This is not to be regarded as indicating a failure on the part of the Companies, but merely as proving that the capital introduced by them had not then proved an equivalent for the capital previously withdrawn ; or, at all events, that time had not been allowed to repair the ruinous consequences of the sudden abstraction of that capital, and the suspen- sion of all Mining works that ensued. But this inquiry belongs more jiroperly to the Second Section, to which I shall accordingly pro- ceed, begging leave to refer my readers to the twelve Tables annexed to this Section, (none of which are, I believe, as yet known to the Public,) for a more detailed examination of the data upon which my calculations are founded. They consist mostly of 40 MEXICO IN 18-27. extracts from Official Records, tfie originals of which are in my possession. Some of them I procured myself, during my visit to the Interior. For others I am indebted to the kind intervention of friends ; but I can warrant the authenticity of all : and, whether the conclusions which I have drawn from them be thought correct, or not, the materials them- selves will, I believe, be found to comprise nearly all the information, that is now to be obtained, respecting the points which it was the object of this Section more particularly to examine. MEXICO IN 18-27. TABLE No. I. FIRST period. 41 TABLE No, n. SECOND period. Years. Gold. Silver. Total. Dnllais. Heals. Dolldfs. Us. Grs. Dollais. ] Tls. Grs. 1811 1,085,364 8,956,432 2 9 10,041,796 2 9 1812 381,646 4,027,620 9 4,409,266 9 1813 6,133,983 6 6,133,983 6 1814 618,069 6,902,481 4 6 7,520,550 4 1815 486,464 6,454,799 5 6,941,26"3 5 1816 960,393 8,315,616 3 9,276,009 3 1817 854,942 7,994,951 8,849,893 1818 533,921 10,852,367 7 6 11,386,288 7 6 1819 539,377 11,491,138 5 12,030,515 5 1820 509,076 9,897,078 1 10,406,154 1 1821 303,504 5,600,022 3 6 5,903,526 3 6 1822 214,128 5,329,126 4 6 5,543,254 4 6 1823 291,408 3,276,413 3 3,567,821 3 1824 236.944 3,266,936 2 0* 3,503,880 2 01 1825 Total. 2,385,455 3,651,423 3 6,036,878 3 9,400,6.91 102,150,391 H 111,551,082 9| 42 :mexico in i»-27. No. III. Coinage of Guadalajara from 1814 (wlien a Mint was first established there) to 1825. From Jan. 26, to Dec. 31, 1814 - - Dollars. Reals. 901,949 From Jan. 1 to April 30, 1815 - - 192,749 2 From Feb, 9 to the end of June, 1818 219,449 From June 13 to the end of Dec. 1821 255,174 In 1822 931,645 In 1823 ------ 734,355 2 In 1 824 - 957,365 In 1825- ----- Total 676,073 4 4,868,760 No. IV. j ■ — '■■ ' -■■ ■ Coinage of the Mint of Durango from 1811 to 1825, Vears. Dollars. Reals. 1811 - - - - 1812 - - - - - 1813 - - - . 1814 - - - - 1815 - - - - 1816 - - . - 1817 - - - - 1818 - - - - 1819 - - - - 1820 - - - - 1821 - . - - 1822 - 1823 - - . - 1824 - - - - 1825 - - - - Total Durango, Jtihj 15, ly2(j. 247,439 808,792 781v240 438,050 2 336,987 314,193 ]3i),800 G 260,830 4 244,298 136,793 209,229 2 608,666 818,430 753,345 2 816,558 2 6,917,652 2 MEXICO IN U527. 43 No V. Coinage of the Mint of Zacatecas from Nov. 1810 to Dec. 1825. Years . From Nov. 14, 1810, to Aug. 31, 1811 From Sep. 5, 1811, to March 2G, 1813 From April 3, 1813, to July 29, 1814 From .July 30, 1814, to May 16, 1818 From June 16, 1818, to Dec. 30, 1818 From Dec. 31, 1818, to Dec. 30, 1819 In 1820- - - - - In 1821 - - - - - Inl822- - In 1823- - - . - In 1824- - - - In 1825- - _ - - Total Dollars. Reals. 1,154,902 6 4,776,971 4 2,455.000 3,635,107 6 638,174 3 1,026,775 4 764,011 6 1,326,700 7 3,610,455 3,965,000 4,093,062 5 3,213,356 30,659,518 1 No. VI. Account of the Number of Bars of Pure Silver, and Bars with a Ley de Oro, entered in this Treasury from 1791 to August 1825, with their Value in Marcs. Bars. Marcs. Ounces. Silver amalgamated - - - Silver smelted _ - _ Bars with a Ley de Oro - Gold, pure and mixed with silver Total. 3,687 6,514 246 477,778 11 823,743 7i 30,223 2 10,447 672 1,331,745 3 14,392 2 11,119 1,346,137 5 Chihuahua, Aug. 21, 1825. (Signed) Ramon Masc arena. 44 MEXICO IN U;27. No. VII. Account of the Produce of Guanajuato from 1 796 to 1 8 10. Years. Bars. Marcs of Silver. Marcs of Gold. 1796 3,734 491,126 1,081 1797 5,265 707,042 968 1798 4,784 625,937 2,529 1799 3,825 499,966 1,972 1800 3,874 506,676 1,932 1801 2,638 342,608 1,457 1802 3,867 502,497 1,676 1803 5,706 750,887 1,538 1804 5,734 755,861 2,128 1805 5,510 723,789 2,495 1806 4,716 618,417 2,188 1807 4,417 578,735 2,396 1808 4,685 017,474 1,842 1809 4,737 620,012 2,189 1810 3,896 511,445 1,419 Total 67,388 8,852,272 27,810 Guanajuato, July 26, 18.i() (Signed) Jose de la Luz Sanchez. No. Vlil. Produce of Cnianajuato from 1811 to 1825. Years. Bars. Marcs of Silver. Marcs of Gold. ( 1811 2,067 270,206 550 1812 2,702 357,930 907 1813 2.204 292,211 462 1814 I 2,568 337,795 708 1815 ] 2,088 27-: <)05 841 1816 2,041 ' 269711 694 1817 1,580 199,706 523 a 1818 1,215 155,112 401 1819 1,149 145,362 450 2 1820 814 100,465 326 2 7 1821 600 73,983 298 3 6 1822 795 95,057 597 2 2 1823 804 96,802 413 5 5 1824 931 106,775 517 3 6 1825 Total 830 22,388 100,193 419 4 2,877,213 8.109 4 Guanajuato, July 26, 1826. (Signed) Jose de l \ Luz Sanch EZ. MEXICO IN liVn. 45 No. IX. Produce of the Mines of Veta Grande from 1795 to 1825. Years. Marcs. Ounces. Years. Alarcs. unces. 1795 41,900 3 1811 42,776 3 1796 35,570 4 1812 32,970 1 1797 10,533 3 1813 83,166 6 1798 15,702 6 1814 98,378 3 1799 8,178 5 1815 29,034 2 1800 17,348 H 1816 45,197 6 1801 14.326 7 1817 39,243 6 1802 20,996 1 1818 50,770 2 1803 64,291 3 1819 59,954 7 1804 136,836 H 1820 67,886 3^ 1805 299,944 7^ 1821 52,186 51 1806 193,533 2 1822 86,293 3 1807 102,999 6 1823 94,452 3^ 1808 184,230 2 1824 67,093 61 1809 65,293 6 1825 67,699 61 1810 101,550 4 Total 1,313,237 21 Total 917,105 0| No. X. Account of the number of Bars of Pure Silver, and Bars with a Ley de Oro, entered in this Treasury from 1800 to 1804, and from 1815 fo 1819. Years. Bars of Pure Silver. Bars with a Ley de Oro. 59 37 63 49 60 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 2,388 2,410 2,426 3,898 2,784 Total 13,906 268 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1,724 863 1,026 1,111 1,135 12 12 10 14 7 Total 5,859 55 Treasury of the State — San Luis Potosi. January 16, 1827. (.Signed) JuAX GuAJARDO. 40 MEXICO IN 1827. No. XI. Account of the Produce of Catorce from 1816 to 1825. Years. Marcs. Dollurs. 1816 39,236 2 313,890 1817 89,888 4 719,108 1818 89,095 2 712,762 1819 87,549 7 700,339 1820 88,136 3 705,091 1821 77,862 4 622,900 1822 112,519 5 900,157 1823 86,634 5 693,077 1824 78,327 6 026,622 1825 79,180 4 033,492 Total 828,432 42 0,627,438 No. XII. /^^fc Mints. Silver. Gold. Total Dollars. Mexico Zacatecas Guadalajara Durango Guanajuato 2,733,221 2,427,844 369,079 789,207 539,978 573,024 30,947 3,306,245 2,427,844 400,020 789,207 539,978 Total 6,859,329 603,971 7,403,300 MEXICO IN 1927. 4)7 SECTION II. THE MINING SYSTEM OF MEXICO BEFORE 1810; CHANGES AVHICH OCCURRED FROM THAT TIME TILL 1823, WHEN THE IDEA OF FOREIGN COMPANIES WAS FIRST SUGGESTED. THE NUMBER OF THESE COMPANIES NOW ESTABLISHED IN MEX- ICO, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR OUTLAY, THE EX- TENT OF THE UNDERTAKINGS IN WHICH THEY ARE EN- GAGED; — THE DIFFICULTIES WHICH THEY HAVE HAD TO ENCOUNTER; — THEIR PROGRESS; BIORE PARTICULARLY DURING MY RESIDENCE IN MEXICO; AND STATE IN 1827- It is unnecessary for me to commence an inquiry respecting the present state of the Mining establish- ments of Mexico, by reverting to an epoch too dis- tant to thro\y any light upon the character of the Mining laws now in force.' I shall therefore merely observe that, after a period of considerable confusion and obscurity, during which all mining questions were decided by an appeal to a heterogeneous code introduced by Charles V., and composed of Old Flemish and German laws, of the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries, an entirely new form was given to the Mining institutions of New Spain, in the year 1777j by the establishment of a Supreme Coimcil of 48 MEXICO IN 1827. Mines, (denominated the Real Tribunal General del importante ciierpo de Mineria de Niieva Espana,) which was followed by the publication of a new Code of laws, (called Las Ordonanzas de Mineria,) and by the creation of Thirty-seven Provincial Councils, or Mining Dei)utations, (Diputaciones de Mineria,) each exercising a jurisdiction independent of tlie civil authority, in all mining cases, in the District assigned to it, with an appeal to the Supreme Tribunal, which resided in the Capital. The Provincial Deputations were composed of de- puties, chosen annually, ])y the Mining proprietors of each District ; and these again deputed two mem- bers of their own 'body to reside in the Capital, who, with a Director, appointed by the Government, an Assessor, two Fiscals, and a Civil Judge, constituted the Supreme Trilmnal. A College was added to this extensive establishment ; and the King assigned, for the support of the whole, one Real de plata upon each Marc of Silver coined, to be deducted from the duty of Seigneurage, which had before been paid to the Crown. A part of this revenue was destined to cover the salaries of the Supreme Tribunal, (which did not, however, exceed 2.5,000 dollars in all,) while the re- mainder defrayed the expenses of the College, and furnished a Capital, out of which advances, (Avios) were made, at the discretion of the Tribunal, to Mining Proprietors, who required funds in order to complete their works. These advances were distri- MEXICO IN 1827. 49 buted, (according to Huml)oldt) with more liberality than judgment ; there being instances on record oC individuals having obtained ''Avios" of from two to three hundred thousand dollars, for single Mines. But although, in more than one case, the whole of the money thus improvidently invested was lost, great enterprises were encouraged by the certainty, which every respectable Miner felt, that, in an emergency, it would always be in his power to obtain assistance : and this, in conjunction with the removal of the commercial restrictions, by which the progress of the Country had before been cramped, but which were much diminished in 1778 by the Decree of Free Trade, exercised so beneficial an influence throughout New Spain that the produce of the Mines increased, (in a term of ten years,) from 112,828,860 dollars, (which was the amount of Sil- ver raised from 1760 to 1769,) to 193,50i,554 dollars, which were yielded by the mines from 1780 to 1789, when the ameliorations introduced began to produce their full effect. From 1790 to 1799, still farther progress was made, the produce having amounted to 231,080,214 dollars, or more than double what it had been in 1769 ; and there is little doubt that the increase would have continued in a similar ratio, during the next ten years, (from 1779 to 1809,) when the produce only amounted to 220,265,711 dollars, had not the munificent dona- tions of Charles III. been swallowed up by the dis- tresses of his Successors. During the wars which fol- VOL. II. E 50 MEXICO IN 1827. lowed the French Revolution, the Tribunal of Mines, in addition to a voluntary gift of half a million of dollars, was forced to assist the Royal Treasury with a loan of Three millions more. The whole of its dis- posable funds were swept away by these advances, and more than half its revenue has been absorbed since, by the interest of the money raised in order to meet such unexpected demands. The Miners, forced again to depend upon the speculations of individuals for "Avios," confined their operations within nar- rower limits ; and although in two years of the term under consideration the Coinage attained the Max- imum of Twenty-seven millions of dollars, (in 1804 and 1805,) still, there was a decrease upon the whole term, as compared with that ending in 1799, of nearly Five millions. The Mining Code of Mexico, (Las Ordonanzas de Mineria) having been published in English, with notes, it will be sufficient for me to observe, that the object of its provisions was rather to determine disputes between individuals, than to settle any dif- ferences between the Mining proprietors and the Sovereign. The whole Mining property of tlie Coun- try was, indeed, supposed to he invested in the Crown, but the only use which the King made of his rights, was to concede to any individual, who " denounced"* the existence of a metalliferous vein * To " denounce," in the Mining Code of Mexico, implies that process, by wliich a legal right of possession is obtained to a particular portion of any vein, worked or unworked, known MEXICO IN 1827. 51 upon any particular spot, exclusive possession of a certain number of varas, (yards,) measured from that spot upon the course of the vein, which were called a Pertinencia, and which became the real, bona fide property of the Denouncer, upon condition that he should undertake certain works for the extraction of ores, within a given time. If this condition were not complied with, the spot selected reverted to its original state of unappropriated Royal Property, and might be again denounced, by any other individual, before the Mining Deputation of the District, which could not refuse a title to the new applicant, on his proving that, during the time specified by the Ordonanzas, no attempt had been made by the first denouncer to work the vein. No other intervention, direct or indirect, took place on the part of the Crown. The King (individually) was not proprietor of a single mine, nor is there one instance, since the Conquest, of an attempt having been made by the Government to interfere with the mode of work- ing adopted by individuals, or to diminish the pro- fits of the successful adventurer, by exacting, under any plea, or pretence, from the more fortunate, a higher rate of duties than that which was payable by the poorest miner to the Royal Treasury. or unknown, which a Miner chooses to select for his operations. I have adopted the word because we have no equivalent for it in English. It probably originated with the first discoveries, when a person might be fairlv said to announce, or denounce a vein, the existence of which Avas not previously known. E 2 52 MEXICO IX 1827. By this judicious liberality and good faith, the fullest scope was given for private exertion ; and this, in a country where mineral treasures are so al)undant, was soon found to be all that was requisite in order to ensure their production to a great extent. The Duties, however, which were payable upon the whole of the Silver raised, were very considerable. They consisted of the King's Fifth, (reduced, sub- sequently, to the Demiquint, or tenth,) the Duty of One per cent, {derecho del uno porciento) and the INIint dues, {dcrechos de Monedage, y SeTioreage) which amounted, in all, to 3^ reals (of eight to the dollar) upon each marc of Silver, which contained 68 reals, but for which the proprietor received only 64. AVhere Gold was combined with the Silver, the duties of the Casa del Apartado were added, which made a total of 1 9-g- per cent. Those paid on pure Silver were l6f. The amount of these Duties was not nearly so de- trimental to the interests of the Miner, as the neces- sity of transmitting the whole produce of his mine in Bars to the Mint of the Capital, where alone it could he converted into dollars. This, in the more distant Provinces, (from the enormous expence of land-car- riage,) was equivalent to a very heavy additional duty, from which neither the Revenue, nor the Country derived any material benefit ; but which tended, unavoidal)ly, to confine all Mining ojjerations to a small circle, and caused tlie rich Districts of the North to be neglected, while tlie Mining Capitals MEXICO IN 1827. 53 were employed, almost exclusively, upon the ])()orei" ores of the South. A similar effect was produced by the restrictions upon the sale of Quicksilver, the monopoly of which belonged to the Crown ; for although, by a series of judicious reductions, the price of this essential article was so much lowered, as to place it within the reach of every class of Miners, still, tlie distribution of it, (which depended upon the Viceroy,) was by no means impartially regulated, the poorer Miners being generally sacri- ficed to the influence of the richer ; while the neces- sity of concentrating the supply in one great Depot, (the Capital) and of effecting the importation through one solitary port, (Veracruz,) rendered the possibility of obtaining a sufficiency for the regular reduction of ores, in the North, extremely uncertain, although the want of it entailed upon the Mining proprietor inevitable ruin. Such were the principal characteristics of the Mining System of New Spain before 1810, at which time the country was supposed to contain 500 Reales, or Realitos, (spots in which mines were worked,) with from Three to Five thousand mines, (large and small,) included in the thirty -seven Mining Dis- tricts, or Deputations, into which the Viceroy alty was divided. The names of these Districts, with those of the principal mines in each, may be found in Humboldt, (Book IV. Chapter II.) as given by a manuscript, drawn up by Don Fausto EUhuyar, (first Director 54 MEXICO IN 1827. of the Supreme Tribunal,) for the Viceroy, Count Revillagigedo. I do not insert them here, both because I am unwilling to trespass unnecessarily upon the time of my readers, and because it will be more suitable to the purposes of the present in- quiry to give, subsequently, a Table of those Mines, for which contracts have been entered into by Bri- tish Companies, and to specify the States in which they are situated; that being now the only terri- torial division recognized in Mexico. It is, there- fore, only necessary to repeat, what I have attempted to demonstrate in the first Section, namely, that the average annual produce of these thirty-seven Dis- tricts, during the fifteen years which preceded the Civil War, was Twenty-four millions of dollars. The extraction of this enormous mass of Silver, was not, (as has been supposed in Europe,) the re- sult of a simple process, in which the Mine owners and the Government were the only parties con- cerned, but rather the effect of a most complicated system, by which the Silver raised was made to pass through the hands of four or five immediate agents, before it was brought into circulation, or even paid the Duties to the Crown. Few of the old Miners were originally capitalists. Many were un- able, at first, to obtain advances from those who were so, except to a very limited amount ; and were thus compelled to carry on the works of their mines, by converting the first fruits into ready money, with- out waiting to ascertain the quantity of Silver which MEXICO IN 1827. 55 the ores might contam. This led to the estabhsh- ment of a class of middle-men, called Rescatadores, who bought up the ores at the mouth of the mine, and reduced them in Haciendas (Amalgamation works) of their own. The Rescatadores again, being mostly small capitalists themselves, had recourse, in their more extensive operations, to the opulent mer- chants established in the towns, who furnished them with funds, when required, on condition of receiving the Silver produced at a rate considerably below the Mint, or market price; (for instance, at six and seven dollars per marc, when the Mint price was eight ;) and by this process, (which was called " Avio a pre- mio de platas"') both the risk and the profits were so subdivided, as to give the poor Miner great faci- lities at first, while the capitalist was enabled to invest his money, almost without fear of loss. The system was carried to an enormous extent before the Revolution, and by it, almost all classes of the community were interested in the success of the mines, while a vast floating capital was employed in them, besides that which was, in some measure, withdrawn from circulation, and sunk in dead works. It gave an impulse to Mining opeiations altogether unprecedented in the history of the world ; and as discoveries were pushed on all sides by the poorer adventurers, who required but very trifling advances to search for mineral treasures, it is more than pro- bable that, if public tranquillity had continued un- disturbed, the Mining produce of Mexico, at the 56 MEXICO IN 1827. present day, would have exceeded, by at least one- third, the utmost produce of the richest years before the Revolution. The Civil War entirely destroyed this chain of communication between the highest and lowest classes of Mining speculators. In many Districts the Haciendas of the Rescatadores were ruined, as were the machinery and works of the mines themselves. In others, water was allowed to accumulate to an immense extent, in consequence of the suspension of the usual labours ; while in all, the merchants, who had before supplied funds for carrying on the different operations, withdrew their capitals, as soon as the intercourse between the Seat of Government and the Provinces was interrupted. In the years 1811 and 1812, the Agricultural produce of the country likewise decreased so rapidly, that it became difficult to procure the means of subsistence. The Mining towns were surrounded by Insurgent parties, which occupied the whole of the open coimtry, and rendered it impossible either to receive supplies, or to make remittances, without the protection of a large escort ; while the exactions of the officers, by whom these escorts were commanded, (exactions, which were reduced to a system, and in which the Viceroy himself largely participated,) doubled the price of quicksilver, and every other article con- sumed in the mines ; and thus reduced the value of Silver to the miner so much, that the marc did not repay the cost of extraction, even with the richest MEXICO IN in-27. 57 ores. The poor ores were allowed to accumulate untouched. This was the real evil of the Revolution. It was not the destruction of the materiel of the mines, however severe the loss, that could have prevented them from recovering the shock, as soon as the first fury of the Civil War had subsided : but the want of confidence, and the constant risk to which capitals were exposed, which, from being in so very tangible a shape, were peculiarly objects of attraction to all parties, — led to the gradual dissolution of a system, which it had required three centuries to bring to the state of perfection in which it existed at the commencement of the War of Independence. I do not believe that I am guilty of any exaggeration in stating, that there never was a greater spirit of en- terprise, more liberality, or, in general, better faith, displayed in any part of the world, than amongst the Miners of Mexico before the year 1810. Unexampled prosperity was tlieir reward ; and had freedom of commerce then existed, there is no doubt that the country would have derived the greatest permanent benefit from their exertions. As it was, riches easily acquired, were as lightly dissipated ; — but little was done towards national improvement; — no fund was provided for future emergencies ; — and, after the great convulsions of 1810, 1811, and 1812, nothing remained to denote, amidst the general wreck, the epoch of splendour which had so immediately preceded it. 58 MEXICO IN 1827. The efforts of the Spanish Government to allevi- ate this distress were unavailing ; although, in jus- tice to Spain, it must be said, that whatever may have been the faults of her Colonial System in general, with regard to the INIines, she has always adopted a more liberal policy. This liberality com- menced soon after the War of Succession, when, in order to conciliate the Mexicans, the King's Fifth was reduced to a Tenth, by a Decree dated the SOtli of December, 1716. In 1769, the price of the Quintal of Quicksilver, (a Royal Monopoly,) was reduced from eighty to sixty dollars, and in 1777, to forty-one dollars including the freight to Mexico. In 1780, Gunpowder, (another monopoly,) was or- dered to be sold at 4^ reals per pound, instead of six reals ; and an exemption from Alcavalas was granted in favour of all articles consumed in the Mines ; which exemption was so rigorously observed, that Don Jose Galvez, when establishing a small tax upon Maize, at Guanajuato, in order to improve the present entrance into the town, allowed the Maize for the consumption of the Mines to pass duty free. By order of the same Count Galvez, in 178.5, during a year of scarcity, tlie Miners were supplied with Maize from the Royal Stores, at the usual price. In 1793, the Government declared its in- tention not to raise the price of Quicksilver, even in time of war; and as recently as 1814, (8th August,) an order was issued, again exempting from the tax of Alcavalas, every article of ordinary consumption MEXICO IN IB27. 59 in tlie Mines, and extending this privilege to all the Mining Districts. But no encouragement, on the part of the Royal Government, could supply the want of capital, and of confidence ; and, with the exception of some works at Catorce,* Zacatecas, and Sombrerete, which were prosecuted successfully, after the reverses of the Insurgents in 1814, and 1815, by small Spanish Capitalists, who resided upon the spot. Mining, throughout the Kingdom, was reduced to a mere shadow of what it had been. In 1821, even these partial works were given up, (on the Declaration of the Independence,) and most of the Spaniards who had invested money in them withdrew their capitals, and returned to Europe. Such was the state of the Mining interests of Mexico, when the first Independent Government was established. Its attention was early, and un- avoidably, drawn to the subject, because the Mines had involved in their fall both agriculture and trade, to which their restoration could alone give a new impulse. This part of the subject, however, belongs more properly to the observations with which it is my * The Emigrants from Catorce were very numerous ; I mean those who returned to Spain, or France, with 60, or 70,000 dollars. The United Company has now almost all the Mines at Zacatecas, which were abandoned at this time, and also those belonging to Don Narciso Anitua, at Sombrerete, which he was compelled to give up just as he had completed the drainage. ()0 MKXICO IX 1B27. intention to close this Book. Here it will be suf- ficient for me to state the means adopted in order to afford immediate relief. By a Decree of the Regency, (dated 20th Fe- bruary, 1822,) the Duties formerly paid under the denominations of One per cent., Royal Tenth, Seig- neurage, and Bocado, were abolished, as were those exacted during the Revolution, on Plata Pasta, or Silver in a crude state ; in lieu of which, a Duty of Three per cent, upon the real value of the Gold and Silver raised, was substituted. The expense of Coinage was likewise reduced to two reals per marc, and the charge at the Apartado, for the separation of the Silver from the Gold in ores containing both, to two reals, in lieu of five and a half. In addition to this, the monopoly formerly enjoyed by the Casa del Apartado was done away with, and liberty granted to the Miners to perform the process of se- parating the Gold from the Silver, where, and as, they pleased.* They were likewise allowed to dis- pose of their Silver, (after presenting it at any of the Provincial Mints to be assayed, and paying the Duty of Three per cent.) as a marketable com- modity, for which each was to obtain the best pos- sible price. * The United Mexican Company has taken advantage of this concession, on the part of the Government, to form an establish- ment in the Capital, in which, by a change in the process, they undertake to separate the two metals at a less expence than the Casa del Apartado. MEXICO IN 1827. 61 The importation of Quicksilver was declared to be Duty free, and Powder, (although it continued a Government Monopoly,) was ordered to be de- livered to the Miners at prime cost. In making most of these concessions, the Govern- ment of Mexico only followed the example of the Peninsula ; most of the reductions indicated above having been sanctioned by the Cortes of Madrid, at the suggestion of the Mexican Deputies, in June and July 1821 ; but the establishment of Mints in the different States, (their legal establishment, I mean,) is due to the Revolution ; as is the free introduction of Quicksilver, on so many different points of the Coasts of the Republic. Both these are most important advantages ; for the last opens an easy access to many rich Districts, to which Quicksilver could only be conveyed at an enormous expence before ; w^hile the newly erected Mints, when provided, as they will be in the course of time, with funds for the purchase of the Plata Pasta, as brought in by the poorer Miners, must promote the progress of Mining enterprises throughout the Federation, since, by destroying the Monopoly of the Capital, they diminish, most materially, both the time and the expence necessary in order to convert Bars into Dollars, at a distance (soirietimes) of three and four hundred leagues from the place where the silver is raised ; and tluis add, specifically, to the value of every marc that the Mines produce. But, notwithstanding these advantages, Capital ()2 MEXICO IN 1827. was wanting in order to turn them to account. The emigration of the Old Spaniards, who were, with few exceptions, the Aviadores, or Habihtators,* and the vast sums withdrawn by them from the coun- try, during the years 1821 and 1822, rendered an accession of fresh Capitalists necessary, in order to restore the Mines to any thing like their former importance ; and with this view, by an act of the Congress, the door was thrown open to Foreigners, who were allowed to become joint proprietors with Natives, on terms highly favourable to the adven- turers, had they entered upon the field presented to them with a proper knowledge of the country, and of the nature of the enterprises which they were about to undertake. Of the eagerness with which the clauses in this Act favourable to Foreign speculation were taken advantage of by His Majesty's subjects, it would be unnecessary for me here to speak, were it not for the very prejudicial influence which this eagerness has exercised upon the interests of the adventurers, by creating a ruinous competition at the very outset, and thus compelling many Companies, in lieu of proposing their own terms, to submit to those dic- tated by the Mexican Proprietors ; and consequently, in some instances, to commence their operations * To hahiUlale, signifies to furnish funds for working a INIine, with or without a share in the management of the works. Ha- Inlitar, and Habilitador, can only be rendered into English by adoption. MEXICO IN 1827. 63 upon conditions so onerous, as much to diminish their prospects of success. Before I attempt, however, to point out the errors that have been committed in this respect, and the consequences to which they have led, it will be necessary to state the number of the Companies actually in existence, the amount of the Capital invested in them, and the States and Districts in which it is embarked. Without reckoning any of those Associations which started up, during the general mania for Min- ing, in England, and threw up their engagements in Mexico as soon as the feeling in favour of these undertakings subsided, there are, at the present mo- ment. Seven great English Companies, besides One German, and Two American Companies, employed in working Mines in different parts of the Fede- ration. Of the names of these Companies, the nominal capital of each,* the capital actually invested, and the States, in which their labours are carrying on, a succinct account will be found in the following sketch. * I use the epithet nominal, because great reluctance seems to have been shown latterly, on the part of the Shareholders of some Companies, to complete the advances for which they have rendered themselves liable ; as if, had it been possible to restore the Mines to activity without a real, and bona Jidc investment to a much larger amount than they could themselves supply, the Mexicans would ever have consented to allow Foreigners to participate in those advantages, of which, during three centuries, their mines have been the source. G4 MEXICO IX 1827. REAL DEL MONTE COMPANY. Director in Mexico, Captain Vetch. Capi- tal. Invest- ed. Slates. Mines. r All the IMines on the two great ij Veins of Biscaina, and Santa Bri- rZ gida, formerly belonging to the Regla r-^^ family. d o o "^ The Bline of !!Moran. d tf Mines on the Veins of Acosta and o o o < Mexico. ^ t L a J s 1 S". Esteban. Lead Mine of Lomo del Toro, at Zimapan. Eight Iron ]\Iines at the Encarna- cion^ near ZimSpan. N Mines of San Francisco, Gnada- I lupe, and Don Martin, at Pechuga. Valladolid. •] Mines of los Apostoles, La Ma- chorra, and San Pedro Barreno, at Ozumatlan. BOLANOS COMPANY. Directors, Captains Vetch and Lyon, R.N. Capi- luvest- tal. ed. o (^ C g (N ^ o ^ << ^ Guadalajara or Jalisco. Zacatecas ..| Tepee, Intermedio, Concepcion, el Camichin Laureles, and Barranco, on the Veta IMadre of Bolanos. Mines belonging to the Fagoaga fimily, at Veta Grande. MEXICO IX 1U27. 65 TLALPUJAHUA COMPANY. Director, Mr. De Rivafinoli. Caoi. tal. O o" o "^ Invest- ed. State?. Mines. O o o s < Mexico s Valladolid < Seven Mines at El Oro ; and Eighty-six Mines on all the principal Veins of the District of Tlalpujahiia, including those of Coronas, Laborda, and Las Virgenes. ANGLO-MEXICAN COMPANY. Director, Mr. Williamson. Capi- Invest- tal. ed. ( d (^ ^ o c^ o o o CO ^^ ■M 3 < Valenciana, Mellado, Tepeyac, Si- rena, Villalpiindo, and several small mines on the Veta Madre, and other Veins, at Guanajilato. La Cruz, San Fernando, Guadalupe, and three other small mines at Zifmapan. Four small Mines at San Cristobal and Maconl. Mines of Concepeion, (a share,) Gua daliipe, de Veta Grande, and Mllagros, at Ciitorce. Mines of La Reunion, Soledad, Gua^ dalupe, Santa Brigida, and El Rosario, at Real del Monte. VOL. II. 66 MEXICO IN 1827. UNITED MEXICAN COMPANY. Directors (M Don Lucas Alaman. Mr. Glennie. r. Agassis. Capi. tal. Invest- ed. O O o o o I— ( o o o o" o CO Guanaju- ato Guadala- jara Zacate iCliihuahua Oaxaca State of Mexico Rayas, Secho, Cata, La Calera, San Roquito, San Rafael, La America, Gua- dalupe, at Guanajuato. Diamantillo and Guardaraya, at Co- manja. Quebradilla, IMalanoche, San Ber- nabe, San Acasio, El Desierto, Loreto at Veta Grande. IMines on the Veins of El Pavellon, and La Vetanegra, at Sombrerete. La Divina Providencia, Animas, and Belen, at Jesus Maria. La Natividad, Dolores, and a mine of Magistral, at Capulalpan. Mines on the Vein of San Pablo, at Teojomulco. IMines of La Bomba, Santa Ana, Las Papas, San IMiguel, San Antonio, and Santa Rita, at El C/iico. All the Mines on La Veta Descu bridora of El Oiu, with those of San Acasio, and San Rafael. La Magdalena, Los Reyes, and La Guitarra, at Temascaltepec. San Antonio, and San Diego, at El Christo. San Mateo, at Zacualpan. Coronilla, at Tetela del Rio. MEXICO IN 1827. THE MEXICAN COMPANY. 07 Capi. tnl. Invest ed. Veracruz 5 Zacatecas Oaxaca (near the Capital of the State.) Copper JMines of Sumoloacan, between Las Vigas and Perote. Some Mines at Fresnillo (not worked.) Mines of Dolores, Santa Ana, San Felipe Neri, Jesus, San Jose, La So- ledad, Sec. CATORCE COxMPANY. Present Director, Mr. Stokes. Capital and In- vestments not exact- ly known ; but the last not supposed to exceed £60,000. San Luis PotosT Queretaro Mexico Dolores Medellin, GuadalupTto, Do- lores, Trompeta ; Sereno, and Great Adit of La Purisima, at Ca force. Mine of El Doctor, in the district of that name. Mines of Santa Ana, GuadalQpe, Todos Santos, Santa Clara, and Cinco Senores, at Tepanti'tlan. AMERICAN COMPANIES. COMPANY OF BALTIMORE. Director, Mr. Keating. Capit.il Invested. Stale. Mines and Districts. Unknown; but very small. Mexico •< Mines of San Jose, San Luis, and Santa Brigida, at Temascaltepec. F 2 68 MEXICO IN 1827. COMPANY OF NEW YORK. CapiUl. Slale. Mines. Unkno^vn; and In- vestments, if any, very trifling. Mexico y ( La Carniceria. Las Animas. La Mina de Aguas. San Juan de las Quebradillas, at Te- mascaltepec. GERMAN COMPANY OF EBERFELD. Directors, Mr. Stein. Mr. ScnLEiDEN. Mr. Von Geroldt. Capital Invested. States. Mines and Districts. Mines of Arevald and Santa Rosa, at El Chico. Mine of Santa Rita, at Zimdpan. Chalma and La Santisima, at San Jose del Oio. Total In- Saltillo and San Joaquin, at El Car- vestment dondl. about Nineteen small Mines at La Pechu^a. 637,760 Mexico - Nine IMines, called De Arriva, at Te- dollars, or mascaltepec. £127,552. The Mina Grande, and two others, at Sultcpcc. Durazno, Christo, Dolores, and Tri- nidad, at El Christo. EI Carmen, La Purisima, and San Atenogenes, at Angangeo. MEXICO IN 1827. 69 My readers will perceive by this statement, that British Capital, to the amount of nearly Three mil- lions sterling, is actually invested in the Mexican Mines; or has, at least, been expended in enterprises immediately connected with them, as machinery, mining implements and stores, quicksilver, and the salaries of officers employed in the different Com- panies. The exact sum disbursed in Mexico, it is impos- sible for me to state ; I should conceive, however, that at least Twelve millions of dollars must have been laid out, at the commencement of 1827, the vivifying influence of which has extended to almost every part of the Federation.* I come now to "the character and extent of the undertakings in which the Companies are engaged, — the difficulties which they have had to encounter; — their progress, — state, — and prospects, — in 1827." All these points are, in fact, so intimately con- nected, that they can hardly be considered apart ; nor will it, I fear, be i)Ossible for me to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion with regard to them, without entering into considerable details ; but this I shall do with the less scruple, because it is to the * I do not mean that bullion to this amount has been im- ported into Mexico ; but that a capital of twelve millions, which would, otherwise, have found its way to Europe, has been re- tained, and brought into circulation in New Spain, in exchange fur the Bills of the different Companies. The imports in Specie on Mining account, have not, I believe, exceeded 300,000 dollars. 70 :mi:xko in 18-27. supposed failure of those golden dreams, by wiiich the imagination of the public was captivated in 1824, (and to which no small portion of the enthu- siasm there displayed in favour of American Inde- pendence may, perhaps, be traced,) that that revul- sion of feeling, which has since taken })lace, must be ascribed, as well as the despondency, with whicli those most interested in American affairs, now look forward to the issue of their several undertakings. For these gloomy forebodings I see, at present, no ground ; but if persevered in, they may be attended with circumstances still more injurious to British interests in the New World, than even the errors committed during the period of wild and unbridled speculation, by which they were preceded. I shall endeavour, therefore, by a plain statement of the advantages and disadvantages of the line that has been pursued, to show the nature of the expecta- tions that may still be reasonably entertained with regard to the result. If I were to take into account nothing but the amount of capital now invested in the mines of Mexico, the average annual produce of these same mines, before the Revolution, and the fact, that those from which by far the largest proportion of this annual produce proceeded, arc now worked upon British account, — I should hazard but little in pronouncing the success of all the Companies to be unquestlona])le. But experience has shown how ill calculations formed on such a basis can stand the MEXICO IX 1827. 71 test of those practical difficulties, with which Com- panies have to contend in the New AVorld ; and many a scheme, the issue of which, upon paper, seemed infallible, has proved utterly inapi)licable to the American Continent, as soon as the attempt to reduce theory to practice was made upon the oppo- site side of the Atlantic. It is true that there is no- where in Mexico that physical impossibiHty of suc- cess, which, at Upsallata, (in Chili,) appears to have put an end to the hopes of the adventurers at once ;* but still, the want of a previous knowledge of the country has been severely felt in all the operations of the Companies ; and, in more than one instance, has, at least, delayed a result, of which the charac- ter of the Mines themselves seems to afford the fairest promise. Upon this point, (the excellence of the Mines,) no doubt can be entertained ; for if ever Mining was reduced to a certainty, it was so in Mexico, before the Revolution. There might be fluctuations, indeed, in particular Districts ; and capital, if invested without judgment, might then, as now, be lost. But the general produce of the country was the same, during a long series of years ; or, if it varied, the variation originated not in the Mines, but in causes totally unconnected with them, which rendered the supply of quicksilver, and other indispensable articles, more or less precarious. England, even while unconnected with Mexico, always exercised a direct influence upon the i)roduce * Fide Captain Head's Statement. 72 MEXICO IN 1827. of her Mines. A war with Great Britain generally caused a reduction of nearly one-third in the Mint Returns ; but then the first years of peace brought with them a corresponding increase, so that the average was never materially affected. A similar connexion may be traced between the Mining and Agricultural interests. From the enormous quan- tity of mules, and horses, employed in Mining ope- rations, (14,000 were in daily use in Guanajuato alone,) a rise in the price of maize occasioned an immediate reduction in all the Mining establish- ments. The poorer ores were suffered to accumu- late in years of scarcity, nor did they become objects of attention, until a succession of plentiful crops again afforded the Mining Proprietors the means of keeping up a sufficiency of live-stock to reduce them with profit. But, notwithstanding these unavoid- able drawbacks, a surprising uniformity will be found in the general produce of the country. The failure of one Mine was compensated by the success of others ; and thus, a sort of standard was esta- Ijlished for the year, which rendered Mining in Mex- ico almost as sure a mode of investing Capital as any other. The average Produce, (as we have seen,) on a term of Fifteen years, was Twenty-four millions of dollars. What the exact amount of the Capital was, by the investment of which, in Mining operations, this vast sum was produced, it is impos- sible now to ascertain. I should he inclined, how- ever, to estimate it, at least, at 71iirtv-six miUions MEXICO IN 1827. 73 of dollars, or nearly three times the amount of the Cai)ital now employed in the same way by the Bri- tish Companies. I am bound to state, that for this estimate I can give no authority. It is a mere matter of conjecture; but since I have seen the num- ber of Amalgamation Works, and other extensive and costly establishments, which are now in ruins in every part of Mexico, and compared them with those which have been rebuilt by the Companies, all that they have done, seems to be as nothing, in comparison with what must formerly have existed. I was particularly struck with this on entering Gua- najuato, where more money has been expended by the two Companies established there, (the Anglo- Mexican, and the United Mexican,) than upon any other single spot in the Federation ; yet the suburb of Marfil, which was formerly, according to Hum- boldt, " an imposing sight," from the activity that prevailed in every part of it, is now a scene of deso- lation : and when, after passing a long succession of ruined Haciendas, one at last enters the Town, the population is found to be still reduced to a little more than one half of what it was in the year 1809, when it exceeded 90,000 souls. Without dwelling unnecessarily upon this idea, I will only add that, in as far as my own means of observation have ex- tended, the remark holds good with regard to every Mhiing District in the Federation. In Zacatecas, Catorce, Sombrerete, arid Real del Monte, the works of the Compaiiies are lost amongst the re- 74 MEXICO IN 1827. mains of former times ; and by what they have expended, some estimate may be formed of what must have been expended before them. This fact, (the difference between the Capital now invested, and that which it was intended to replace,) is one cause of the disappointment of those, who ima- gine that, because a very large sum has been laid out upon the Mines of Mexico by British Capitalists, the produce of those Mines ought, at once, to equal that of the best years before the Revolution. But a still simpler solution of this disappointment may be found in the total ignorance of every thing- connected with the New World, under the influence of which most of the Capital, now employed in Min- ing speculations there, was invested. In every other commercial enterprise, some pre- vious acquaintance with the subject might have been thought necessary ; but the Mines were to be an exception to all ordinary rules ; and, on the princi- ple, I suppose, of taking omne ignotum pro nuignijico, vast sums were embarked in schemes, of which the very persons, who staked their all upon the result, knew literally nothing, except the name. I am far from wishing to lay unnecessary stress upon this circumstance, but it is essential to a right understanding of the delays that have occurred in the realization of the hopes of those, who sought a profitable investment in the Mines, to state, that the only knowledge which the British Pul)lic possessed, three years ago, of Mexico, was derived from a MEXICO IN 1827. 75 superficial acquaintance with the Essai Politique of Baron Humboldt ; which, although it contains more valuable information than any other similar work, that has ever been given to the world, was, never- theless, calculated to create an erroneous impression with regard to the actual state of New Spain, by descriptions of a splendour, which had long ceased to exist. No allowances were made for the moral, as well as physical, effects of fourteen years of Civil War ; — the dispersion of the most valuable portion of the Mining labourers ; — the deterioration of land- ed property ; — the destruction of stock ; — and the difficulty of reorganizing a branch of industry so extensive in all its ramifications as Mining, and so dependent upon other branches, not immediately connected with the Mines themselves, and conse- quently, not under the control of their Directors ! All this was to be effected, too, in a country, in many parts of which it was necessary to create a population, before a single step could be taken to- wards repairing the ruin, which the Revolution had occasioned. And yet, nine-tenths of those who engaged in the arduous task, did so under the con- viction that icater was the only obstacle which they had to overcome, and that the possibility of sur- mounting this, by the aid of English machinery, was unquestionable ! Nor was this all. The errors which Baron Humboldt's scientific eye had detected in parts of the Mining System of Mexico, were supposed to extend to the whole. The practical 76 MEXICO IN 1827. experience of the Native Miners was underrated; — their machinery condemned, without any previous inquiry as to its powers, or the different degrees of perfection which it had attained in the different Districts : — Gradual improvement was pronounced too sluggish a process ; and Cornwall was drained of half its population, in order to substitute an entirely new method, for that which had been endeared to the Mexicans by the experience of three Centuries. The total failure of this attempt was the natural consequence of the want of consideration with which it was made. That it has failed, (although the fact seems still to be disputed in England,) it is impossible to deny ; nor do I believe that, under any circumstances, it could have proved permanently successful. Englishmen of the lower orders appear to un- dergo a change, on leaving their own country, (par- ticularly if exposed to the contagion of a large town,) which renders them the most inefficient of human beings : nor is it by an excess of liber- ality, which only raises them above the sphere in which they were fitted to act, that this evil can be remedied. Indolence, obstinacy and insolence, take, but too soon, the place of those qualities, by which our working classes are distinguished at home ; and, as their prejudices are not less strong than those which they have to encounter on the part of the Natives, the result, in all cases where mutual assistance is required, cannot be favourable. MEXICO IN IB-27. 77 It is but fair to add, that the disinclination of the Mexicans to co-operate in many of the plans sug- gested, has been not a httle increased by the dis- covery that some of our boasted improvements* have not been productive of any solid advantage, while others have proved complete failures ; and where this is the case, it is next to impossible, in any Country, to substitute new methods, merely because they are new, for a practice, which time has already rendered familiar. Experience has now induced most of the Com- panies to retrace their steps, and to reduce their Establishments in such a manner as to make the Management strictly European, while the operative part is confided to Natives ; but this experience has been dearly bought. The Anglo-Mexican Com- pany alone had expended, in September 3826, nearly 30,000/. in salaries to men, almost all of whom have now been dismissed ; and full 100,000/. in Machinery (including duties and carriage from the Coast,) not one twentieth part of which either has been, or ever can be, made use of; the machi- * I allude not to the use of Machinery where that of the country has proved insufficient, as at Real del Monte ; but to the attempt to substitute the Cornish system of washing and dressing Ores, for that of New Spain. In this, as in many supposed improvements in the process of Amalgamation and Smelting, innovation has, hitherto, only led to loss; and I believe that, in every instance, the works for reducing Ores are now confided to Natives. 78 MEXICO IX 1827. iieiy of the Country having been found iully ade- quate for the drainage of their Mines.* The Expences of the Real del Monte Company, in the same way, have been still greater ; but there, the issue of the whole undertaking depends upon the application of the power of Steam, and the Engines render European Workmen of all kinds indispensable. Even there, however, a great reduc- tion is taking place. The United Mexican Company has likewise dis- missed almost all its European Workmen. Indeed, in many instances, the whole management is eon- lidcd to Natives ; and although this system has not, I think, been generally successful, (from the list- lessness, and want of activity, of many of the Agents,) in some places it has been productive of the vei y best effects, as at Sombrerete, where nothing could exceed the beautiful order in which I found the works, under the management of Don Narcisu Anitua, who acts, at the same time, as Proprietor, and as Mining Director for the Company. At Tlalpujahua, the attempt to introduce a strictly Eiu'opean System was never made ; and that Com- pany has, consequently, experienced fev/cr changes, and incurred less expence since its establishment, * The Mines of Villalpando anil Sirena, vihich are likely to prove the most productive, were drained by Mr. Williamson, in six months, by the application of Malacates, (Horse Whims;) and of the ultimate drainage of Valenciana, by tlie same process, 1 entertain little doubt. MEXICO IN 1827. 79 than any other. Its whole Outlay does not exceed 180,000/. while, by engrafting upon the old Mexican machinery a number of modern European improve- ments, a steady progress has been made in the works, which now present every prospect of a fa- vourable result. I have been unavoidably drawn into these details, in order to place in a proper light, strictures, which, although they apply, in some measure, to all the Companies, are not applicable, in the same degree, to each : nor can I terminate this unpleasant por- tion of my task, without pointing out a few ad- ditional circumstances, by which the prospects of the Adventurers in the Mexican Mines have been more or less influenced. There is hardly a single Company, amongst those now formed, that has not expended considerable sums upon Mines, which, had they been better acquainted with the Country, they would never have attempted to work. This is not to be attri- buted entirely to the Directors in Mexico. In 1825, the rage for taking up Mining Contracts was such, that many Adventurers, who presented them- selves in London for tliat purpose, disposed of Mines, (the value of which was, to say the least, very questionable,) to the Boards of Management in England, without the Agents of tlie Company upon the spot having been either consulted, or even apprized of the purchase, until it was concluded. Others were contracted for in Mexico, without 80 MEXICO IN 1H27. })roper inquiry or precaution ; and large sums were often paid do^¥n for mere pits, which, upon inves- tigation, it was found impossible to work. In some cases, operations were actually commenced, and all the preliminary parts of a Mining Establishment formed, without sufficient data to afford a proba- bility of repayment. In many of the Districts immediately about the Capital, (as Zimapan, El Doctor, Capula, Chico, Temascaltepec, 1796 1,315,424 n 832,347 483,077 u 1797 2,128,439 2h 878.789 2 1,249,650 oi 1798 1,724,437 4~ 890,735 5 833,701 7 1799 1,584,393 1| 915,438 5h 668,954 4 1800 1,480,933 7 977,314 5 503,619 9 1801 1,393,438 991,981 7 401,456 51 1802 1,229,631 1 944,309 n 285,321 7i 1803 1,232,045 937.931 H 294,113 1| 1804 1,185,265 5 941,121 1 244,144 4 1805 1,113,756 4 946,346 6 167,409 6 1806 1,040,632 7 914,662 7 125,970 1807 1,191,582 2 1,019,781 H 171,800 eh 1808 1,523,815 6 1,205,924 1 317,891 5 1809 1,385,611 I5 1,204,333 1 181,278 oh 1810 869,068 3 899,521 n 31,813,486 H 19,676,349 4| 12,167,589 30,452 H 61 Deduct 1 OSS in year 1810 Clear Profit 12,137,136 7 MEXICO IN 1827. TABLE, No. III. 141 Produce and E: iipenditure in the Mine o f Valenciana from 1788 to 1810, and from SECOND PERIOD 1811 to 1825. Years. Total Produce. Expence Profit. Dollars . Reals. Dollars. Reals. Dollars. Reals. 1811 323,762 21 122,687 61 201,074 4 1813 279,599 7 144,002 7^ 135,596 Th. 1813 258,920 3h 238,443 n 20,477 2 1814 305,638 H 215,257 3 90,381 H. 1815 279,346 235,519 Gh 73,826 n 1816 178,512 7 149,030 H 29,482 n. 1817 165,986 H. 136,429 1 29,557 41 1818 174,971 U 142,317 21 3%,Q53 7 1819 202,414 5h 180,743 1 21,671 4| 1820 80,183 6 63,351 3 16,832 3 1821 101,138 61 72,809 5| 28,329 1 1822 70,450 4i 60,575 Q 9,875 2i 1823 36,199 1 32,045 sh 4,153 5h 1824 117,143 51 87,341 3 29,802 ~2 1825 31,413 4 11,588 7 19,824 5 2,605,682 24- 1,862,143 3 743,538 7i TABLE, No. IV. MINING DISTRICTS OF THE NORTH. STATE OF DURANGO. In the Sierra Madre — GiiarTsamey, San Dlmas, Ga- vilanes, Tayoltita, Caneliis, Sianori, Bacis^ Tamasula, Ven- tanas, San Andres. East cf the Sierra Madre — Cuencame, (near the River Nazas,) Yerva Buena, MapimT, Indce, EI Oro, GuanasevT. STATE OF CHIHUAHUA. El Parral, Santa Eulalia, Batopilas, Jesus Maria, Los Pilares, Capirichie, Santa Rosa de Cosiquiriachic, El Pilar, Batopilillas, Rosario, El Potrero, Milpillas. STATE OF SONORA AND SINALOA. Mulatos, Cosala, Alamos, Arispe, El Rosario. 142 MEXICO IN 1827. TABLE, No. V. LA CANDELARIA. 1795. 1796. 1803. 1804. Produce Expences Produce Expences Produce Expences Produce Expences Profits Profits Profits Profits Dollars. 258,936 128,384 Reals. 4| 130,552 359,361 136,279 223,082 225,778 101,416 124,362 260,555 117,240 143,315 li MEXICO IN 1827. 143 SECTION IV. SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON MEXICO AS A MINING COUNTRY ; WITH AN INQUIRY AS TO THE PROBABILITY OF HER BEING ENABLED BY HER MINERAL TREASURES TO MULTIPLY HER COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH EUROPE, AND TO ACQUIT THE INTEREST OP WHATEVER LOANS SHE MAY HAVE CONTRACTED THERE. It is to Baron Humbolt's Essai Politique that Europe is indebted for whatever knowledge it now possesses of the peculiarities by which Mexico is distinguished as a Mining country. How little was known before his time may be inferred from the fact, that Robertson, celebrated, as he so justly is, for the diligence and accuracy of his researches, in his view of the Colonial Policy of Spain, confounds, every where, the climate of Mexico with that of Peru and Chil^, and deplores the mortality occasioned amongst the natives, (whom he supposes to have been com- pelled to work in the mines,) " by the sudden tran- sition from the sultry climate of the valleys, to the chiU, penetrating air, peculiar to high land in the torrid zone." I need hardly state that, the idea is a mistaken one ; and that however miserable the lot 144 MEXICO IN 1827. of those poor wretches may be, whose sufferings, amidst the eternal snows of the Andes, (at Upsallata, and San Pedro NostoH,) Captain Head so forcibly describes, there is no sort of analogy between their situation, and that of the mining population of New Spain. Compulsory labour has never been known there ; and the temperature of Ziicatecas and Gua- najuato, where the first mines were worked, differs but little from that of Tlascala, CholCila, and Tenoch- titlan, where the population was found to be most concentrated at the time of the Conquest. So little, indeed, are the metalliferous ridges, which have been, hitherto, the seat of the great mining operations of the Spaniards, elevated above the level of the Table-land, that, with the exception of Jesus Maria, (North-west of Chihuahua,) I hardly know one mining district, in the vicinity of which the snow remains long on the ground. Real del Monte, and Tlalpujahua, are certainly not warm ; and the first is liable to be occasionally enveloped in clouds, as is the district of El Oro, near Ziinapan, and many others on the Eastern branch of the Cor- dillera. But tlie difference between their level,' and that of the Capital, does not exceed 1,500, or 2,000 feet, (as will be seen by a reference to the map of Routes and elevations annexed to this volume,) and the cold felt there by visitors from the warmer dis- tricts, is merely relative ; the Thermometer seldom falling below 40° of Faln-enheit, except in the nights, which are sometimes severe. This temperature seems MEXICO IN 1827. 145 well adapted to the constitution of the Indians, who flock to these mountain districts with their families, on the report of any new discovery, and appear to thrive there as well as upon the Table-land. There are particular tribes of Natives, who have been miners from generation to generation, and who lead a roving life, migrating, with their wives and child- ren, from one district to another, as they are attract- ed by the fame of superior riches. A mine in Bonanza, in whatever part of the country it may be situated, is sure of a sufficient supply of workmen, I)ecause the system of payment by Partido, (a share in the ore raised,) which is usually resorted to upon such occasions, is always preferred to regular wages, however high, for dead works. It was by employ- ing liberally this powerful incitement to exertion, that the Old Spaniards found means to create a po- pulation in the most distant and desolate districts, without having recourse to the Mita or Tanda, which, in Peru and Chili, was in such general use ; while it is not improbable, that the absence of that system of forced labour, which was adopted South of the Equator, has contributed not a little to encourage that love of mining, which prevails at the present day, amongst the natives of New Spain. Far from looking upon it with dread or repugnance, they re- gard it as their natural occupation, and appear to feel, in many parts of the country, a sovereign contempt for the agricultural population, which is reduced to vegetate upon a scanty daily pittance, without a VOL. II. L 146 MEXICO IN 1827. chance of acquiring that sudden wealth, which some- times falls to a Barretero's lot. In addition to these accidental advantages, the ordinary wages of a miner are high ; and although the money which passes through his hands is usually as ill spent, as it is rapidly acquired, still, to ensure the means of in- dulging in a weekly excess, (the necessity of which seems to be an article of the mining creed in every country,) there are few Indians who will not enter gladly upon a week of labour. It is not, therefore, to be apprehended, that the late change of institutions in Mexico wiU occasion any difficulty in finding hands to carry on mining operations there, to whatever extent they may be pushed by the Companies, although there have been great complaints upon the subject, hitherto, in many districts, from the total dispersion of the population during the Civil War. Things revert, however, gra- dually, to their former state, and that without the necessity of any extraordinary exertion. At Tlal- piijahua, for instance, upon the first arrival of the Company, (in 1825,) one hundred and fifty labourers were collected with difficulty. In 1827, from twelve to sixteen hundred persons were in daily employ- ment in the mines, besides from six to seven hun- dred more, who were occupied in cutting wood, and making charcoal in the neighbouring mountains. At Guanajuato, within one year after the establish- ment of the Anglo-Mexican and United Mexican Companies, the population increased from thirty to MEXICO IN 1827. 147 nearly forty-five thousand. A similar change took place at Zacatecas, Sombrerete, and Real del Monte. Hundreds of Indians emerged from the fastnesses, in which they had been dragging on a precarious, and almost savage existence, in the midst of every kind of privation, to seek a livelihood by active labour ; and this disposition must necessarily increase, as the advantages derived from it become more apparent. It will not, however, produce its full effect, until the mines begin to yield ores anew, for it is only the really industrious part of the population that has sought employment, hitherto, in the preparatory works ; but, from the moment that these are con- cluded, it is very generally thought that there will be no deficiency of labourers. I have already pointed out the fact, that the im- portance of the mines of Mexico consists not merely in the amount of the Mineral treasures which they produce, but in the impulse which is communicated by them to all the other great interests of the State. In a country, the largest and most fertile portion of which, (the Table-land,) is precluded, by the pecu- liarity of its position, and by the want of a water- communication with the Coast, from exchanging its produce for that of European industry, the great mass of the population would be reduced to the lowest state of indigence, were it not for the home- market created by the mines. In this respect, the very poverty of the ores of Mexico was an advan- tage, by increasing enormously the scale upon which I. 2 148 MEXICO IN 1827. Mining establishments were necessarily formed. We have seen that the Three millions of marcs of silver, to which the average annual produce of the country amounted, were extracted from Ten millions of Quin- tals of Ore ; and I have endeavoured to give, in the second Section, some idea of the process, by which the separation of the Silver from this mass of extra- neous substances was effected. The number of men and animals employed in it was immense, and in every place where they were thus congregated, a demand was created for Agricultural produce, which rose, as the importance of the mines increased, and called gradually into existence a cultivation, of which no trace was to be found before. Such has been the progress of civilization, and of Agricultural industry, throughout New Spain. With the exception of the Capital, which, as the seat of Government, derived its importance from other sources, and the towns of La Puebla, Guadalajara, Valladolid, and Oaxaca, which were selected as the seats of the great Epis- copal establishments of the country, there is hardly a sincrle town in Mexico, that does not derive its origin, directly or indirectly, from the Mines ; while, in like manner, cultivation will be found to extend in a long line from South to North, with occasional inclinations to the East and West, (following al- ways, in its direction, that of Mining discoveries,) the course of which may be easily traced upon the map. The most fertile portions of the Table-land are, MEXICO IN 1B27. 149 the Bfixio, which is immediately contiguous to Guan- ajuato, and comprises a portion of the States of Va' ladolid ; Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato : The Valley of Toluca, and the Southern parts of the State of Valladolid, which supply both the Capi- tal and the Mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El Oro, Temascaltepec, and Angangeo ; the plains of Pa- chuca and Apam, which extend, on either side, to the foot of the mountains, upon which the mines of Real del Monte and Chico are situated ; Itzmi- quilpan, which owes its existence to Zimapan ; Aguascalientes, by which the great Mining town of Zacatecas is supplied ; a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and Fresnillo ; the valley of the Jaral, and the plains about San Luis Potosi, which town, again, derives its name from the mines of the Cerro de San Pedro, (about four leagues from the gates ;) the supposed superiority of which to the famous mines oi Potosi, in Peru, gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther North we find the district of Matehuala, which is now a thriving town, with seven thousand inhabi- tants, created by the discovery of Catorce ; while about the same time, (the latter part of the last century,) Durango rose into importance from the impulse given to the surrounding country by the labours of Zambrano, at San Dim as and Guarisamey. Its population increased in twelve years, from eight to twenty thousand ; while whole streets and squares vere added to its extent by the munificence of that 150 MEXICO IN 18-27. fortunate miner. To the extreme North, Santa Eulalia gave rise to the town of Chihuahua ; Bato- pilas, and El Parral, became each the centre of a little circle of cultivation ; Jesus Maria is, at the present day, producing a similar effect ; Mapini, Cuencame, and Indee, (a little more to the South- ward,) served to develope the natural fertility of the banks of the river Nazas ; while in the low hot regions of Sonora and Cinaloa, on the Western Coast, almost every place designated in the map as a town, was originally, (and generally is still,) a Real, or district of mines. Such was the case with Alamos and Cfdiacan, and Cosala and El Rosario ; and such will be found to be the case with an infinity of other towns and villages scattered over the territory of the Mexican Republic, which, but for the mines, never would have existed at all. When once formed, these establishments, as Humboldt very justly observes, often survived the mines which gave them birth ; and turned to agricultural labours, for the supply of other districts, that industry which was at first devoted solely to their own. Some, however, are so unfavourably situated as necessarily to follow the fate of the mines ; in which case their population goes to swell that of the nearest district where there is a demand for labour, but might easily be diverted into more distant channels, were the advantages held out suflficiently great to compensate the difficulties of the removal. MEXICO IN 1827. 151 An examination into the sources of the wealth of the principal families of the Mexican nobility will confirm what I have stated with regard to the towns, by leading us nearly to the same result. The family of Regla, which now possesses landed property to an immense extent in various parts of the country, pur- chased the whole of it with the proceeds of the mines of Real del Monte. The Fagoagas owe their present importance to the great Bonanza of the Pavellon at Sombrerete. The estates of the family of Vibanco proceeded from the mines of Bolanos. The houses of Valenciana, Riihl, Perez, Galvez, and Otero, are all indebted for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and ViUalpando, at Guanajuato. The family of Sardaneta (Los Marqueses de Rayas), takes it rise from the mine of that name. Cata and Mellado gave to their first proprietor (Don Francisco Matias de Busto) the Marquisate of San Clemente, with immense wealth, a part of which has been transmitted to his descendants. The Ca- nada of Laborde, at Tlalpujahua, with the mines of QuebradiUa and San Acasio, at Zacatecas, all con- tributed towards the three fortunes of Laborde. The family of the Obregones owes its beautiful estates, (near Leon,) to the mines of La Purisima, and Concepcion, at Catorce ; as does the family of Gordoa, the estate of Malpasso to the mine of La Luz. The son of Zambrano, (the discoverer of Gua- risamey,) wasted as his rightful property has been, is still in possession of four of the largest estates in 15^ MEXICO IN 1827. Durango : and Batopilas gave to the Marquis of Biistamante, both the means of purchasing his title, for which he paid by a loan of 300,000 dollars, ((30,000/.) to the Royal Treasury, during the Revo- tion, and the affluence which he is now enjoying in the Peninsula. The above is a most imperfect sketch of the origin of the fortunes of the leading families in Mexico. With some few exceptions, such as the Conde de Agreda, whose fortune was made by trade, the descendants of Cortes, who received a Royal grant of the Valley of Oaxaca, (the value of which is now much reduced by the abolition of the Indian Capi- tation tax,) and the families of some of the Spanish merchants established at Jalapa and Veracriiz, it will be found that almost the whole landed property of the country is in the hands of JNIining families, and has, in a great m.easure, been brought into cul- tivation by the mines. They furnished the means of building the vast Presas de Agua, or Reservoirs, without which agriculture can so seldom be carried on successfully upon the Table-land ; and thus ren- dered productive districts, the fertility of which, had nature not been assisted by art, would never have l^een developed ; while the constant demand, in the Mining towns, for every article of agricultural pro- duce, rendered this mode of investing capital pre- ferable to any other then open to a Native. The Civil War has, indeed, reduced almost to nothing the value of these possessions, and there is little, at pre- MEXICO IN 1827. 153 sent, to demonstrate the wealth, to which, under more favourable circumstances, the principal families of the Republic will find themselves restored : but time alone is wanting in order to bring things round to their natural level ; the seeds of opulence are there, and, in proportion as the country advances towards a more settled order of things, the period approaches, at which they may be again expected to produce their former fruits. Melancholy, indeed, would be the fate of Mexico, if the source from which all her riches have hitherto been derived, were, as some suppose, exhausted and dried up ! She could not only find no substitute for her mines in her Foreign Trade, of which they fur- nish the great staple. Silver, but her resources at home would decrease, in exactly the same propor- tion as her means of supplying her wants from abroad. Her Agriculture would be confined to such a supply of the necessaries of life, as each individual would have it in his power to raise ; — Districts, for- merly amongst the richest in the known world, would be thrown for ever out of cultivation ; — the great Mining towns would become, what they were during the worst years of the Revolution, the picture of desolation ; and the country, would be so far thrown back in the career of civihzation, that the great ma- jority of its inhabitants would be compelled to revert to a Nomade life, and to seek a precarious subsist- ence amidst their flocks and herds, like the Gaucho of the Pampas, of whose Indian habits Captain Head 154 MEXICO IN 1827. has given us so spirited, and so faithful a picture. I desire no better proof of this than the contrast, which exists, at the present day, in every part of New Spain, between the degraded situation of the husbandman, or small landed proprietor, in any dis- trict without an outlet, and that of a proprietor, (however small,) in the vicinity of the mines. The one, is without wants, and almost without an idea of civilized life ; clothed in a leather dress, or in the coarsest kind of home-made woollen manufactures ; — living in primitive simplicity perhaps, but in pri- mitive ignorance, and brutality too ; — sunk in sloth, and incapable of exertion, unless stimulated by some momentary excitement : while the other, acquires wants daily, with the means of gratifying them ; and grows industrious, in proportion as the advantages which he derives from the fruits of his labour in- crease ; his mind opens to the advantages of Euro- pean arts ; he seeks for his offspring, at least, that education which had been denied to himself ; * and becomes, gradually, with a taste for the delights of civilization, a more important member, himself, of the civilized world ! Who can see this, as I have seen it, without feeling, as I have felt, the importance, not only to Mexico, but to Europe, of a branch of * Amongst the young Mexicans who have been sent to Eng- land, or the United States, for their education,, I could mention several from the Mining districts, as the sons of Don Narciso Anitua, at Sombrerete, and those of the principal Agent of Count Regla, at Real del Monte. MEXICO IN 1827. 155 industry capable of producing such beneficial effects ? And alone capable of producing them : for Mexico, without her mines, (I cannot too often repeat it,) notwithstanding the fertility of her soil, and the vast amount of her former Agricultural produce, can never rise to any importance in the scale of nations. The markets of the Table-land must be home-mar- kets, and these the mines alone can supply. On the Coasts, indeed, the productions of the Tropics, which we term Colonial Produce, might serve as an object of barter ; but these, supposing their cultivation to be carried to the greatest possible extent, could never cover the demand upon European industry, which the wants of a population of eight millions will, under more favourable circumstances, occasion, as their value nuist decrease in proportion to the superabundance of the supply, until they reach the point, at which their price, when raised, would cease to repay the cost of raising them. Thus the trade of Mexico would be confined to her Vanilla, and Cochineal, (of which she has a natural monopoly;) while the number of those who consume European Manufactures in the Interior, (which does not yet include one half of the population,) would be re- duced probably to one-tenth. Fortunately, there is no reason whatever to apprehend the approach of that scarcity of mineral productions, with which many seem to think that New Spain is menaced. Hitherto, at least, every step that has been taken in exploring the country, has led to fresh indications of 156 MEXICO IN 1827. wealth, which, in the North, appears to be really inexhaustible. To the European manufacturer, it is a matter of indifference whether the silver, which is transmitted to him in return for the produce of his labour, proceeds from Guanajuato, or Diirango, from the centre of the Table-land, or the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The capability of the country to produce it in sufficient quantities to ensure a constant market, and an equally constant return, is the only point which it can be of importance for him to ascertain ; and of this, from the moment that a sufficient capital is invested in mining operations, I have no scruple in stating that there can be no doubt. Mining in Mexico has, hitherto, been confined to a comparatively narrow circle : the immense mass of silver which the country has yielded since the Conquest, (Humboldt calculates it at 1,767,952,000 dollars, in 1803,) has proceeded from a few Central spots, in which the capital and activity of the first speculators found ample employment : yet, if we examine those spots, we shall find that three cen- turies of constant productiveness, have not been suf- ficient to exhaust the principal mines originally worked in each, while by far the largest proportion of the great Veins remains unexplored. This is the case at Guanajuato, with the mines of Cata and Rayas, and at Zacatecas, with those of San Acasio and San Bernabe, — all of which now belong to the United Mexican Association. Valenciana is a more MEXICO IN 1827. 157 recent discovery, but Mellado, (likewise at Guiirict- juato,) which belongs to the Anglo-Mexican Com- pany, is supposed to have been the first mine de- nounced in that district. At Sombrerete, the Vein of the Pavellon has been worked from the time of the Conquest, though it was only in the year 1792 that it produced the famous Bonanza of the Fa- goagas. The mines of Santa Eulalia, in Chihuahua, continued to be equally productive during a period of eighty years, and were only abandoned at last in consequence of the incursions of the Indian Tribes.* The riches of Real del Monte can hardly be said to have diminished in a term of sixty years, although the difficulty of the drainage caused the works there to be suspended.! '^^^^ same may be said of Bo- laiios, which is likewise in the hands of one of the English Companies ; ( Vide Section II.) — and although, in some of the inferior districts, many smaller veins have been worked out, we have to set against this the immense regions hitherto unexplored, or if ex- amined, only sufficiently so to affiDrd some faint indications of the riches which they are now known to contain. There is, therefore, so little reason to question the * Vide preceding Section. t Count Regla possesses an account, given upon oath by the miners employed in 1801, of the state of the lower levels, at the time when the mines on the Biscaina vein were given up, by which it appears that the richness of the vein continued unim- paired. 158 MEXICO IN 1»27. producing powers of the country, that, were it ne- cessary to adopt one of two extreme suppositions^ there would rather be cause to fear a depreciation in the vahie of our present circulating medium, from the probability of too great an increase in the aver- age annual produce, than to apprehend any great falling oiF in its amount. But the progress of dis- coveries, as we have seen, is liable to be influenced by a thousand circumstances, unconnected with the mines themselves : any great change, in either sense, must be the work of time ; and occupied as the Companies now are by extensive undertakings in the more Central districts, it seems probable, not only that the former standard of twenty-four millions per annum will not be reached before the year 1835, but that, while the mines of the South continue to be sufficiently productive to repay the Adventurers, capital will not be employed to any great extent in the less accessible districts of the North, to which, as I have already stated, I am induced to attach the greatest importance. On the other hand, it may be urged that the Trade which is now opened with Asia, through the ports of Mazatlan and Guaymas, will hold out great encouragement to speculations in that quarter, by the facilities which it affords for turning to imme- diate account riches, which were formerly of (com- paratively) but little advantage. All the luxuries of life may now be obtained with as much ease by the inhabitants of the Provinces on the Pacific, as by MEXICO IN 1827. 159 those of the Capital itself; and there can be little doubt that, in proportion as wealth becomes more desirable, it will be more eagerly sought. It is therefore difficult, after allowing a reasonable time for these causes to operate, to suppose that they will not produce their natural effects ; in which case I am certainly inclined to think that a very consider- able increase in the amount of silver raised in Mexico, may be expected to take place ; although it is impossible now to fix the period at which this change will occur, and still more so, to ascertain the extent to which it may ultimately be carried. It is sufficient for the commercial nations of Europe to know that, from the moment that the internal affairs of New Spain assume a more settled character, and that sufficient time has elapsed to allow the new institutions to take root, there is every prospect of an increase in the demand for every article of Eu- ropean manufacture, while that very increase in a country, the revenue of which depends so much upon the customs,* will augment the power of the Go- vernment to meet its engagements abroad. It may, and I fear it will, be said, that the chain of evidence is here incomplete, and that I am assum- ing a fact favourable to Mexico in the first instance, in order to draw from it my own conclusions after- wards. This is by no means my wish ; but, at the same time, I confess that, (in common, I believe, * Fide Section V. of Book III. 160 MEXICO IN 1827. with all those who have had an opportunity of in- quiring into the resources of New Spain,) I do re- gard it as so well ascertained a fact that her mineral riches are almost unexplored, that I am willing to rest upon it my whole calculation with regard to her future importance as a country. I have not formed this opinion hastily, or without endeavouring to collect all the data respecting it, that it is possible to obtain in the present unsettled state of the coun- try ; but having formed it, (whether correctly or erroneously, time alone can determine,) I cannot lay it aside at pleasure, in an investigation, the result of which it must materially influence. I need not, however, remind my readers, that I am here only canvassing probabilities, nor again urge upon their attention the fact, that, whatever be the capabilities of the country, their developement depends upon the general course of events, which may advance or retard the moment, at which the extent of the re- sources of Mexico can alone be fully known. I shall now quit a part of my subject ; upon which so much uncertainty necessarily prevails, and revert to one that admits of a more accurate investigation, viz. the immediate influence of the mines upon the commercial demand, with a few observations upon which I shall beg leave to close this Book. In an extensive Mining Negotiation, one-half of the annual produce may be fairly taken as tlie amount brought into circulation in the country by the expences of working. This half is distributed. MEXICO IN 1827. I6l partly amongst the superintendents, and labourers in the mines, and partly amongst the landed pro- prietors of the surrounding districts, each, and all of whom, it enables to become consumers of something more than maize-cakes, and home-spun cottons, by bringing within their reac)i a portion of those Im- ports, with which the American market is supplied by European ingenuity. Of the facility with which a taste for European productions is acqviired, the total downfall of the native manufactures of wool and cotton, in the short space of four years, is a suffi- cient proof I have not the means of tracing the exact amount of the consumption of British manu- factures in each of the Mining districts, but it is certain that, wherever a company has been esta- blished, shops have been opened, and regular supplies of goods drawn from the Capital, or the nearest port, not one-fiftieth part of which could have lieen dis- posed of, had the Mines continued unworked. The streets of Guanajuato, Sombrerete, and Zacatecas, are full of large magazines ; there is a constant com- munication between Catorce and Refugio ; as there is between the Mining towns of Sonora and Cinaloa, and the ports of Mazatlan and Guaymas. At Real del Monte, I was assured that the change which had taken place, in fourteen months, in the appearance of the population, was really wonderful ; and at Tlalpiijahua, which, in 1825, was a ruined mountain village, Mr. de Rivafinoli, (the Director of the Company established there,) informed me that VOL. II. M I62t MEXICO IK 1827. the Alcavala, (or Excise,) which, on his first arrival, amounted only to 250 or 300 dollars per month, had risen to 1,500, and 2,000 dollars; and that a shop for the sale of European manufactures had been opened there, by the house of Green and Hartley, the monthly receipts of which amounted to six thousand dollars. If we reflect that the money thus brought into circulation is not confined to the Dis- tricts, in which I have described its more immediate effects, but extends, more or less, over the whole country, by giving a value to Wheat, IMaize, and Barley, hides, tallow. Pita-ropes, coarse sacking, with cattle, sheep, mules and horses, from the great breeding estates in tlie North, and that all those who are thus enabled to dispose of their own stocks, become instantaneously consumers of ours, it will be seen that the investment of capital, by which this change has been promoted, has not only not been injurious to England, but that, in point of fact, a large pro- portion of the fifteen millions of dollars, at which I have estimated the investments of our Companies, has already returned to us, in the shape of remit- tances to our manufacturers at home. As the Mines improve, these remittances will in- crease : we have, at present, but little more than the proceeds of that capital, by which the regeneration of the mines is to be effected, in conjunction with a produce, not exceeding one-third of the average standard before the Revolution. When the mines begin to pay, the case will be very different ; for, in MEXICO IN 1827. 163 addition to the half, which I suppose to be absorbed by the expences, one moiety of the remaining half will go to the Mexican proprietor, and consequently remain in the country, until it is exchanged there for the produce of European industry. Upon the amount of that produce consumed, the most important branch of the Revenue depends ; and it is to the increase or diminution of the Reve- nue again, that the creditors of Mexico must look for regularity in the payment of the interest due upon the loans contracted in this country. Of the ability of Mexico to meet her engagements, under moderately good management, I entertain no doubt ; nor would any temporary fluctuations in her receipts or commerce, affect my opinion of her re- sources. It would be melancholy, certainly, were the bountiful intentions of Nature to be frustrated, by civil dissensions, or by injudicious legislative in- terference ; a little tendency to which will, probably, long remain in all the countries formerly subject to Spain ; but my visit to the Interior of Mexico taught me to believe, that the party spirit, which rages occasionally in the capital, ought not to be taken as a criterion of the general feelings of the inhabi- tants ; and to hope, that few causes in fact exist, by which the general tranquillity of the country is likely to be again disturbed. Of those causes, in a work of this nature, I am not at liberty to speak ; I shall, therefore, proceed at once to what I must terra, in the usual phrase of the day, my Personal M 2 164 MEXICO IN 1827. Narrative, which v/ill contain some account of ray first and second visits to Mexico, (in the autumn of 1823, and January 1825,) together with my subse- quent journeys to the Mining Districts, (in 1826, and 1827,) in which I shall endeavour to include all the statistical details, of any interest, respecting the difFei'ent parts of the country through which I passed, not comprehended in the preceding parts of this work. iMEXICO IN 1»27. 165 ADDITIONAL REMARKS. Since the conclusion of my investigations with regard to the produce of the Mines, I have discover- ed that, from the number of Mints which were tem- porarily established during the first years of the Revolution, and afterwards suppressed by order of the Viceroy, of which little is known in the Capital, I have been betrayed into some slight inaccuracies, which, from information subsequently received, I am enabled to rectify. For instance : I have not included in my general Table of Coinage, the Mints of Guanajuato and Som- brerete, not being in possession of any returns from those places, and conceiving, consequently, that, while they remained in the hands of the Insurgents, (by whom the Mints were first established,) no account had been taken of the money coined in each, during the very short time that they were allowed to subsist. I now find that, in Guanajuato, from December 1812 to May 1813, the Royal Authorities brought Hidalgo's Mint again into activity, and that 311,125 dollars were struck off on the Government account. From 18^i to 1825, about two millions of dollars 166 MEXICO IN 1827. more were coined, (2,170,454 dollars,) which ought, consequently, to be added to the 155,213,012 dollars, at which I have estimated the whole Coinage of New Spain, during the fifteen years immediately subsequent to tlie Revolution. One million, five hundred and sixty-one thousand, two hundred and forty-nine dollars must likewise be added for the Coinage of Sombre rete, where it ap- pears that there was a Mint in full activity from the 16th of October, 1810, to the I6th of July, 1811. The effect of this would be to render the Total Coinage of the fifteen years 159,255,840 dollars, viz. : — Dollars. Amount given by General Table . 155,213,012 Coinage of Guanajuato, from Decem- ber 1812 to May 1813 . . 311,125 Ditto from 1821 to 1825 . . 2,170,454 Coinage of Sombrerete . . 1,561,249 Total . 159,255,840 and this again, (with the deductions specified in the first Section,) would give 10,487,986 dollars, 5 reals, as the annual average of registered produce, since the Revolution, in lieu of 10,218,464 dollars, 6 reals, at which I have estimated it. I merely state this for the sake of correctness, as it does not affect my subsequent calculations, in which I have taken as the basis a produce of Eleven millions. MEXICO IN 1H27. 167 Besides, the produce both of Guanajuato and Sombrerete, is given separately in the Table of Pro- duce, as taken from official records. I annex a General Table of the total Coinage of all the Mints of Mexico, including that of the Ca- pital, from the year 1733, when it was first placed under the direction of the Government, and returns of the annual coinage regularly kept. By this it will appear, that the sum of 1,435,658,611 dollars has been registered as the produce of the mines of Mexico in ninety-three years, (from 1733 to June 1826.) The work of Baron Humboldt enables me to add from Registers, which, but for his researches, would now have ceased to exist, (since not even the Mex- ican Government has been enabled to annex them to its official statements of the Mint Returns,) 272,514,825 dollars more, as the registered coinage of the Mint of Mexico from 1690 to 1733, with which year the present table commences. This gives a produce of 1,708,173,436 dollars hi a hundred and thirty-six years, and proves both the constancy of the producing powers of the country, and the moderation of Baron Humboldt's calcula- tions with regard to them, since he estimated the amount of silver raised from the Mines of Mex- ico in 1803, (from the Conquest in 1521,) at 1,767,952,000 dollars, or, 2,027,952,000 dollars, if one seventh were added to thc^ (Official Returns for unregistered silver. 168 MEXICO IN 1827. GENERAL TABLE OF COINAGE IN MEXICO. The Mint of the Capital was established in 1535. Until the year 1 733, when it was placed under the direction of the Government, there are no Returns. From 1733 to June 1826, the regis- tered Coinage is : — Dolla In Gold In Silver 03 365,400. .^^^ 1,318,853,130 > ' ' ' GUANAJUATO. From Dec. 1812, to May 15, 1813 - - - 311,125 From April 1821, to June /^ 3,024,194 1820 - - - 2,713,009 ZACATECAS. From Nov, 24, 1810, to June 1820 - - 32,108,185 1 GUADALAJARA. From 1812, to June 1826, In Gold - - 225,032 » ,-^ , .^ „ « In Silver - - 5,433,527 7 9 S '''^^^'''^-^ ' ^ DURANGO. From 1811, to June 1820 -, 7,483,620 4 CIIinUAIIUA. From 1811 to 1814, Avhou the Mint was suppressed - - - 3,603,660 SOJIBR.ERETE. From Oct. 16, 1810, to July 10, 1811, when tlie Mint was suppressed - - 1,561,249 2 Total 1,435,058,611 2 3 BOOK V. PERSONAL NARRATIVE. BOOK V. PERSONAL NARRATIVE. SECTION I. FIRST VISIT TO MEXICO IN 1823. — JOURNEY FROM VERA CRUZ TO THE CAPITAL. In the autumn of 1823, I had the honour of being appointed a member of the Commission, which His Majesty's Government was about to send to Mexico, in order to ascertain the state of affairs in that country, the political separation of which from Spain had been announced to the world in 1821, by the treaty of Cordova, and the subsequent elevation of Itiirbide to the imperial throne.* The party was composed of Mr. Hervey, who was placed at the head of the first Commission, Mr. * Vide Sketch of the Revohition. Book II. 172 iNIEXICO IN 1»27. O'Gorman, now His Majesty's Consul-General in Mexico, Mr. Mackenzie, who resided for some time as Consul at Jalapa, Mr. Thompson, Secretary to the Commission, Dr. Mair, and myself. Our voyage was monotonously prosperous ; it is therefore only necessary to state that we embarked at Plymouth, on the 18th of October, 1823, on board His Ma- jesty's ship Thetis, commanded by Sir John Philli- more, and anchored off the island of Sacrificios on the llth of December, being prevented from enter- ing the harbour of Vera Cruz, by the hostilities which had commenced, about two months before, be- tween the town and the Castle of San Juan de Uloa. On the passage we only touched at Madeira, where we passed four delightful days. This island forms a connecting link between the Old and the New World, and possesses many of the characteristics of both. The curtain of vines, which extends over the whole face of the mountain above Funchal, and rises gradually to the foot of the emi- nence, upon which the Convent of Nuestra Seiiora de la Soledad is situated, is worthy of Italy or Anda- lusia ; while the Interior recalls, at one moment, the volcanic remains so frequent in America, and at another, the striking scenery of Switzerland or the Tyrol. This again contrasts singularly with the minor beauties of cultivation in the vicinity of the town : the trellices extending across the steep, paved road, the walls of which are covered with the Camellia MEXICO IN 1827. 173 Japonica, the wild luxuriancy of the gardens, and the brilliant white of the houses glittering in the sun, with verandas sheltered from its rays by a large tree, or a cluster of bananas. The whole forms a scene which is not easily forgotten, and which was, perhaps, impressed the more forcibly on my mind, by its total dissimilarity to that which succeeded it — the gloomy sand-hills of Veracruz. On the morning of our arrival at Sacrificios, I was commissioned by Mr. Hervey to go on shore in order to open our communications with the Mexicans. Not being aware that, since the firing from the Castle had commenced, the great gates of the town had been closed, and that all intercourse with it was conducted by a road from Mocambo Point, (nearly opposite to our anchorage,) we took advan- tage of a momentary silence in the batteries on both sides, and rowed straight for the pier-head, passing within a quarter of a mile of the Castle, the walls of which were covered with men. On reaching the mole we landed, and proceeded towards the gate at the farther extremity, where, after much delay, we succeeded in obtaining admission through a wicket, behind which we found a breastwork of sand-bags, and a few straggling soldiers, with an officer, who, on due explanation being given, conducted us to the house of General Victoria, at that time Governor of the Province, and Commander-in-chief of the Army employed in the siege of Uloa. Nothing could exceed the melancholy appearance 174 MEXICO IN 1827. of the streets through which we passed. A town entirely abandoned by its inhabitants, must be, at all times, a strange, and a mournful sight ; but when to this unnatural solitude are added tlie marks of recent warfare, houses riddled with shot, churches half in ruins, and flights of vultures, congregating around the carcase of some dead animal in the streets, it is difficult to imagine a more striking- picture of desolation. Nor was there any of the military bustle which usually attends a siege, to enliven the monotony of the scene. The garrison of St. John of Uloa was so small, and the climate of Veracruz so dangerous, that the Mexican force consisted merely of men enough to work the batteries, which had been con- structed in the hope of making some impression upon the Castle, the bomb-proof casemates of which would have bid defiance to any such attempt, had not hunger ar.d disease lent their powerful assistance to the besieging force without. I do not believe that we met with a single living creature from the sea-side to Victoria's house, where, to our great surprise, we found ourselves suddenly in the midst of loud and boisterous re- joicings. It was his Saint's day, (the day of the Virgin of Giiadalupe,) and all the officers of the garrison were dining with him, in order to comme- morate it. Rather a fine band of music was play- ing in the Court ; a number of dark, muscular-look- ing men were scattered carelessly around ; and al- MEXICO IN 1827. 175 though the appearance of many of them was suffi- ciently uncouth, still, both amongst them, and amongst the officers to whom we were afterwards introduced, there was some attempt at uniformity of dress, no traces of which could be discovered in the guard, by which we had been admitted at the gate. Of the pleasure with which the intelligence of the arrival of a British Commission in Mexico was re- ceived by General Victoria, who came out in person to welcome us, it is needless to speak. Next to the Independence of his country, his first wish through life had been to see an intercourse esta- bhshed with England ; and that wish was at length gratified ! After a long conversation with him, lie conducted us to the room where the officers were assembled, by whom we were received with deafen- ing " Vivas :" the Band was stationed in the Corri- dor ; toasts were given in honour of England, and her King ; in which the happy coincidence of our arrival having taken place upon the day sacred to the Patroness of Mexico and of Guadalupe Victoria was not forgotten. Some of the impromptus made by the officers upon this " fehz Casualidad," were clever, and the verses by no means ill turned ; al- though their principal merit naturally consisted in conveying to us the feelings of the moment. After making arrangements for landing our bag- gage at Mocambo, and receiving a promise that mules should be immediately provided for our conveyance 176 MEXICO IN 1827. into the Interior, we returned to the boat, accom- panied by a guard of honour, much superior in appearance to that which we had found upon duty, and took leave, at the gate, of our new friends. The last mark of attention with which they favoured us I should willingly have dispensed with, for wish- ing to honour us with a salute, on pushing off, they forgot that their guns were shotted, and direct- ed against the Castle, which immediately opened its batteries in return, so that for some time we had the pleasure of finding ourselves between two fires. The balls and shells passed considerably above us, but we saw more than one strike the pier which we had just left, and many more bury themselves in the sands near a bastion at the Southern extremity of the town. Notwithstanding General Victoria's wish to ex- pedite our departure, several days elapsed before the arrangements for our journey could be completed. We found the greatest difficulty in procuring mules for our baggage, or horses for ourselves ; for the trade of Veracruz having been transferred to Alvarado, a general emigration of the population had taken place, with the exception of a few sickly-looking families, which had established themselves in tents in the midst of what was once a wood of cocoa-nut trees,* a little beyond the range of the shells from * The trees were all cut down, when Santana and Victoria were besieged in Veracruz by Iturbidu's army, under the orders of General Echavarri. — /Vr/c last Section of Book II. MEXICO IN 1827. 177 the Castle. In the mean time a constant commu- nication was kept up between the Thetis and the town, by the Mocambo road ; Mr. Hervey and Ge- neral Victoria exchanged visits, and on the 14th the whole Commission dined, at the General's house, which, in the evening, presented a curious scene ; for although there was not a woman in Veracruz, we had the music of all the regiments playing in the Patio, while the soldiers danced the Jarave, and other national dances, until a very late hour. A violent North-west wind came on about eis^ht o'clock, which rendered it impossible for us to return on board to sleep, but General Victoria provided us all with beds, and during the night the gale abated sufficiently to enable us to reach the Thetis after breakfast the next morning. We there made our final preparations for landing, and got the last of our baggage on shore, in the hope of being able to com- mence our journey early on the 16th ; but the long expected mules did not arrive till late, and when they did come, such was the confusion which en- sued amongst the muleteers in parcelling out boxes and packages, very few of which were intended for the back of a mule, that although we were at work from six in the morning, it was four in the afternoon before we succeeded in getting fairly into marching order. I was at one time very much inclined to throw up the task of superintendence in despair, for with fifty baggage mules, and three Englisli car- riages, each drawn by seven wretched animals, to VOL. II, N 178 MEXICO IN 1827. marshal, I saw no hope of ever leaving the beach. None of our English servants were of the slightest use, as, with the exception of mine, who had been four years with me in Spain, they spoke no Spanish ; but had they been perfect masters of the language, it would have been of little avail, for neither re- monstrances, nor persuasion, nor abuse, produced the least effect upon the lawless set by which we were surrounded. Nothing but the very dregs of the population had remained in Veracruz, and out of these, of course, our muleteers and coachmen were selected. They were almost all blacks, or descend- ants of blacks, with a mixture of Indian blood, and seemed either never to have known the restraints of civilization, or, at all events, to have lost sight of them amidst the wild scenes of the Revolution : whilst with us, they certainly acknowledged no su- perior but the Corporal of the escort, whose sword, the flat part of which was applied without scruple to their backs, sometimes accomplished what it was impossible for any other mode of treatment to effect. On quitting the beach with our whole caravan in marching order, we followed a path, which, after winding for about a league amongst the sand-hills by which Veracruz is surrounded, joined the road to Santa Fe, a village at which, although only three leagues from Veracruz, we had agreed to rendezvous, and pass the night. It was seven in the evening before I reached it, and eleven at night before the carriages appeared. I found them imbedded in the MEXICO IN 1827. 179 sand about a league from Veracruz, with the coach- men stretched at full length by the side of their mules, and fast asleep ; a measure to which our Eng- lish servants told me that they had had recourse the very moment that a difficulty occurred in advancing. With the assistance of the guard, means were taken to awaken them ; but seeing that it was useless for me to remain, I rode on, leaving a sous officier, and four men to bring them up ; and rejoicing to think, that however necessary the carriages might prove in the Capital, all the members of our party were young, and active enough to be able to dispense with them upon the road. Even in the present improved state of the communications, they are a continual source of embarrassment on a journey, for English axletrees are not at all adapted to Mexican roads, and if a wheel or a spring be injured, there is no possibility of getting it repaired : but in 1823, there was hardly a single league between Veracruz and Perote, in which some vexatious delay did not occur to make us regret that we had burthened ourselves with such incumbrances at all. We found at Santa Fe the first specimen of the sort of accommodations that we were to expect on our journey through the Tierra CaUente of Mexico. The village was composed of five or six Indian huts, rather more spacious than some which we afterwards met with, but built of bamboos, and thatched with palm-leaves, with a portico of similar materials be- fore the door. The canes of which the sides are N 2 180 MEXICO IN 1827. composed, are placed at so respectable a distance from each other as to admit both light and air : this renders windows unnecessary. A door there is< which leads at once into the principal apartment, in which father and mother, brothers and sisters, pigs and poultry, all lodge together in amicable confu- sion. In some instances, a subdivision is attempted, by suspending a mat or two in such a manner as to partition off a corner of the room; but this is usually thought superfluous. The kitchen occupies a sepa- rate hut. The beds are sometimes raised on a little framework of cane, but much oftener consist of a square mat placed upon the ground ; while a few gourds for containing water, some large glasses for orangeade, a stone for grinding maize, and a little coarse earthenware, compose the whole stock of do- mestic utensils. We found, however, provisions in abundance ; fowls, rice, tortillas, (thin maize cakes,) and pine-apples, with a copious supply of orangeade, furnished an excellent supper, after which we com- menced our preparations for the night. We had all taken the precaution of providing ourselves with brass camp-beds, which, in America, are one of the necessaries of life : they pack into so small a com- pass that two of them make a light load for a mule ; while, when put together, which requires but little time or trouble, they ensure to the traveller the means of resting after the fatigues of the day with every possible convenience and comfort. Above all, the musquito-net should not be forgotten ; for MEXICO IN 1827. 181 without it there are few parts of the New World in which those troublesome insects do not make such an example of a iiouveau debarque, as not only to deprive him of rest, but to throw him into a fever for some days. We put up our beds in the open air, under the shed which projected from the front of the inn, v/hile Dr. Mair and Mr. Thompson, whose baggage was not come up, slung two cots, which they had brought from on board, to the raf- ters above us. Our horses were picketed close round the shed, with an ample provision of Zacatc, (dried maize stalks ;) the servants slept on the outside, wrapped up in cloaks, with our saddles for pillows ; and beyond them again the men and horses of the escort were stationed, with a large watch-fire, and two or three sentinels, to prevent robberies during the night. Upon the whole, I have seldom wit- nessed a more curious scene, and we could none of us help remarking, as we contemplated it, that if this were a fair specimen of the introduction to American Diplomacy, there would be few candi- dates for the Missions to the New States amongst his Majesty's older diplomatic servants in Europe. On the morning of the 17th of December, we quitted Santa Fe at about nine o'clock, having sent off the carriages and heavy baggage some hours before. Our day's journey was to be only twelve leagues, as we had been advised to sleep at Puente del Rey, a large village, celebrated as the scene of many a sanguinary engagement during the Revolu- 182 MEXICO IN 1827. tionary wars ; but although the ground rises but little in the intervening s})ace, we found the greatest difficulty in advancing, from the extreme badness of the road, which was in many places a wilderness of sand. The carriage-mules knocked up, and the coachmen mutinied both at El Mamintial, and at Paso Ovejas, two Ranchos, at each of which they seemed determined to pass the night ; and although we forced them on, and left a guard with them at last, with strict orders not to allow them to stop, they did not leach the Puente until two in the morning. We arrived ourselves about dusk, with barely light enough to enable us to admire the beautiful scenery by which we were surrounded. The bridge Avhich is thrown over the river An- tigua at this place is, like most Spanish works of this description, admirably constructed. The arches are of stone, and the bridge itself commu- nicates with a causeway, which, on the one side, winds down a steep descent, and on the other, forms an elevated road, along which the huts, of which the village of the Puente is composed, are scattered amongst some large trees, at considerable intervals from each other. But it is on looking towards tlie A'eracruz side tliat you are struck with the pictu- resque ai)pearance of the bridge, for there you per- ceive most distinctly the curve in which its pecu- liarity consists ; while the fine masses of rock that command it, and tlu' ra])id stream that runs be- low, i'orciiig a passage over a thousand obstacles, MEXICO IN 1827. 183 form a scene far superior to any that we had met with since our landing. Nothing can be more monotonous than the general character of the coun- try from Veracruz to the Puente ; the sand-hills do not indeed extend above three miles into the interior, but for some leagues there seems to be a struggle between vegetation and sterility. Patches of a rich and luxuriant green are intersected by long intervals of rocks and sand, nor is it until you reach Paso de Ovejas, that any thing like regular cultivation is discovered. There we passed the ruins of a large Sugar Hacienda, Avhicli had been abandoned during the Revolution, and saw evident traces of a rich and productive soil. But on leaving the river to which this fertility is due, we again found ourselves in a sandy desert, where little but the Mimosa was to be seen, except in spots where some apparently insignificant stream called into existence, at once, the luxuriant vegetation of the Tropics. In these we were quite bewildered by the variety of plants, all new to the European eye, and generally thrown together in such fanciful con- fusion, that the most experienced botanist would have had some difficulty in classing them ; for, as each tree supports two or three creepers, the fruits and flowers of which bear no sort of proportion in point of size to the slender liranches of the mother plant, it is not easy to distinguish them, at first sight, from the produce of the tree to which they cling. The air is quite perfumed at times with this 184 MEXICO IN 1827. profusion of flowers, many of which are most deli- cately coloured, (particularly the varieties of the Convolvulus kind ;) while the plumage of the birds, of which, in some j)laces, the woods are full, is hardly less briUiant than the flowers themselves. Flocks of Parrots and Macaws are seen in every direction, with Cardinals, Censontlis, or mocking- birds, and a thousand others, the names of which, in any language, I cannot pretend to give ; Deer too, occasionally bounded across the road ; but of the Jaguars, (Mexican Tiger,) and other wild ani- mals, we saw none, although their skins are to be met with in great abundance. Throughout the Tierra Caliente, not one hundredth part of the soil has been brought into cultivation ; yet in the Indian cottages, many of whicli I entered, I always found a plentiful supply of Indian Corn, Rice, Bananas, Oranges, and Pine-apples, which, though certainly not equal to those of the Havanna in flavour, seemed to us, when heated with travelling, a most delicious fruit. Of the Banana I am not an ad- mirer ; its taste reminded me of sweet pomatum, and I gave it up after a very short trial. All these fruits are produced, with little or no labour, on a spot of ground in the vicinity of the cottage, which, though apparently too small to support a single in- dividual, is usually sufficient, vv^ith the addition of a few Frijoles, (beans,) and a little Chile from the Interior, to provide for the subsistence of the whole family. For this indeed, not much is required. MEXICO IN 1827. 185 They seldom partake of animal food : their fowls supply them abundantly with eggs, and enable them, when sent to the market of the nearest town, to purchase a little clothing : this, however, the beauty of the climate, and a sufficiently primitive notion of what decency requires, enable them, in a great measure, to dispense with. If a horse be added to the establishment, which is indispensable where there is any mixture of white blood, the forest fur- nishes abundant pasturage, and it causes no addi- tional expence. A saddle, and a Machete, a long cut and thrust sword, which is almost always worn, are indeed costly articles ; but these are transmitted, as heir-looms in the family, from one generation to another; and the young man who obtains possession of such treasures, during his father's life-time, by any exertions of his own, may be said to have es- tablished his independence at once. Friday the 18th, we quitted the Puente, Avhere our accommodations had been very similar to those which we met with at Santa Fe, as we again bi- vouacked in front of the house, which was not nearly large enough to contain us. We took a last look before we set out at the bridge, and at the little eminence upon which Victoria had entrenched himself above. It is sufficiently precipitous to ren- der any attempt to carry it by assault extremely difficult ; but, as a military position, it is untenable ; being liable both to be turned, and to be deprived of water, with which it is supplied from the river IM MEXICO IN 18-27. below. Victoria experienced this when attacked by a regular force under Miyares, (as stated in the sketch of the Revolution,) against whom he tried in vain to maintain his ground : but as a strong hold in a Guerrilla war, the possession of Puente del Rey was of importance, by enabling the Insurgents to cut off the ordinary communication with the Capital, and to bid defiance to small detachments of the Royalist Troops. A sketch of the bridge and surrounding rocks will be found in the first Vo- lume, which, though on a small scale, sufficiently indicates both the beauties and the difficulties of the Pass. The distance from the Puente to Plan del Rio does not exceed six leagues, but we found, on arriving there, that our carriages were, as usual, so very far behind, that it was useless to attempt the ascent to the Encerro, which commences a little be- yond Plan del Rio, without fresh mules. These there was no possibility of obtaining, so that we re- solved to halt at once for the day. The luxury of an inn actually built of brick, and subdivided into a number of separate rooms, each with a door opening into the Patio, or Court, and, though without win- dows, whitewashed, and provided with a small table and a chair, reconciled us to the delay. Such indul- gencies were quite unexpected. There is a fine bridge at the Plan, thrown over a rapid stream, which, in the rainy season, would be impassable without it. It consists of a single arch MEXICO IN 1827. 187 of very large dimensions, and, as at Puente del Rey, communicates with a line of causeway, which was formerly a part of the great paved road constructed at the expence of the Merchants of Veracruz. There are nothing but fragments of this road now in ex- istence, one of which extends for about two leagues into the interior from Puente del Rey. The remain- der was either broken up by the contending parties during the Civil War, or allowed to go to ruin for want of repairs ; a constant necessity for which is created by the impetuosity of the mountain torrents during the rainy season. The village of El Plan, at the time of our visit, was very healthy, but it is within the range of the Vomito, or Veracruz fever, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter, and is consequently by no means a safe residence in the hotter months. From November to April, the only inconvenience to be apprehended are the sand-flies, which are quite in- sufferable. They are so small that no Musquito-net will exclude them, and bite with such sharpness that a small drop of blood is usually the first indication of their having settled upon the hand or face. For- tunately, they differ from Mosquitos in one respect, as they disappear at sunset, a peculiarity to which travellers are indebted for a chance of sleep, which they could not otherwise enjoy. On leaving Plan del Rio, (December 19,) the ascent to the Table-land of Mexico may be said to commence. The elevation of the Plan above the 188 MEXICO IN 1827. level of the sea is very trifling, but in the six leagues which intervene between it and the Encerro, the height of 3,043 feet is attained, which is sufficient to give an entirely new character to the climate and productions. The air becomes considerably rarefied; the fruits and flowers of the Tierra Caliente disap- pear ; and the Mimosas are replaced by the Mex- ican Oak ; which, in the summer season, must be a welcome sight, as it is supposed to indicate to the traveller his arrival in those more healthy regions, where, if he has not brought infection with him, he has no longer any danger from the Vomito to appre- hend. With the exception of this change, for which Humboldt's work had prepared us, we met with little worthy of remark on the road to the EncerrS, where we stopped to breakfast, and to allow time for our carriages to come up. We found great rea- son to rejoice at not having been tempted to select it for our cpiarters on the preceding night, as the house was small, and incommodious, combining all the disagreeable smells peculiar to a Spanish-Ameri- can shop, of which Tasajo (dried beef,) and garlic are usually the most agreeable, with a great appear- ance of dirt, which we should have been unable to avoid by sleeping in the open air, as the change of climate was already sufficient to render the shelter of a roof indispensable. As some compensation, the distant view of Orizava and Perote, from the door of the inn, was very fine, as was that over the vast MEXICO IN 1827. 189 extent of country which we had traversed on our way from the coast. As soon as our carriages arrived, we proceeded in the direction of Jalapa, where we understood that some preparations had been made for our reception. After a continued ascent of about two hours, over a rugged and dangerous road, we reached the platform upon which the town stands, and pursued our course along a piece of the old Veracruz causeway, through fields of maize, and gardens, following each other in rapid succession, sometimes surrounded with hedges of the Banana and the Aloe, interspersed with Chi- rimoyas, and a thousand other trees ; and at others by a light cane fence, which just enabled us to per- ceive the variety of the flowers in which the houses were almost buried within. At a little distance from the town we were met by several officers on horse- back, who had been deputed to receive us, and by whom we were conducted to a house which had been prepared for us in the principal street, where we found the Governor, with some of the principal members of the Ayuntamiento : a dinner was in readiness, to which we all sate down in great state, with a band of music at the door : servants were placed at our disposal ; and a mayor domo, or Maitre d' hotel was presented to us, who, we were informed, had orders to furnish every thing that we could pos- sibly want during our stay. In short, nothing could be more gratifying than our reception : the streets 190 MEXICO IN 1827. were full of people as we passed, and, although the " Vivas'" with which they saluted us proved that they had rather an indistinct idea as yet of our real character,* they at least showed that we were hailed as no unwelcome guests. It was, indeed, a new epoch in the history of America that commenced with our arrival. It was the first step towards that growing intercourse with Europe, the importance of which to them, and to us, will be every day more generally felt ; and as such, it justified the enthusiasm with which the resolution of His Majesty's Government was received on both sides of the Atlantic, before the evils, to which an unbridled spirit of speculation gave rise in this coun- try, taught the disappointed to ascribe to this wise policy the misfortunes, which were to be attributed solely to their own folly. We remained three whole days at Jalapa, in hourly expectation of the arrival of carriage-mules, which had been sent for to La Puebla, as it was impossible for us to proceed any farther with those which had brought us with so much difficulty from Veracruz. At last they came, and on the 24th we recommenced our journey. We had had ample oppor- tunity in the mean time to admire both the beauty of the scenery in the environs of Jalapa, and the hospi- tality of the Natives. All the Creoles eagerly sought * Vivan los Embajadores de la Europa! (Long live the Ambassadors of Europe !) was, if I recollect right, the most ge- neral cry. MEXICO IN 1827. 191 our acquaintance, and omitted nothing that could render our stay agreeable ; but of the Old Spanish Veracruz merchants, we did not, I believe, see one. This was bad policy on their part ; for although it was natural that they should give up their hold upon the country with reluctance, still, to show it, was only to afford their enemies a pretext for those violent measures, by which their expulsion from the Republic has been since attempted. No one laments this violence more than myself: it is discreditable to Mexico, inasmuch as it is a violation of the public faith, which was pledged to the Spaniards by the De- claration of Iguala, for the security of the persons and jDroperty of all such as chose to remain ; and it is disadvantageous to the general interests of the State, by draining it of the capital which the civil war has left, and which was barely sufficient in 1827 to give activity to trade : but at the same time justice bids me add that it was hardly possible that any amalga- mation of interests, so directly opposed to each other, should permanently take place. Very few of the Spaniards could learn to treat as equals, men, over whom they had so long exercised almost absolute authority ; many betrayed this feeling in the most unguarded manner ; and their imprudence contri- buted not a little to increase that irritation, on the part of the Creoles, which had taken but too deep a root during twelve years of civil war. It is lamen- table, however, to reflect upon the number of re- spectable and useful men, who will be involved in 192 MEXICO IN 1827. the common ruin. But let me return from this digression. Of the country about Jalapa it is impossible that any words should convey an adequate idea. It stands in the very centre of some of the finest moun- tain scenery that the world can boast of Nothing can be more spendid than the Peak of Orizava, when the veil of clouds, which but too frequently conceals it during tlie day, yields to the last rays of the glorious setting sun. Such a sunset, and such a mountain, can only be seen beneath the Tropics, where every thing is upon a gigantic scale, and where, from the purity of the atmosphere, even the flood of light from above seems proportioned to the magnitude of the objects upon which it is poured forth. Orizava is 17,375 feet above the level of the sea : it is connected by a long chain of intervening moun- tains with the Coffre de Perote, (so called from a mass of rock in the shape of a chest, which distin- guishes the crest of the mountain,) and the two togetlier form a beautiful termination to the view in the direction of the Table -land. The Coffre is nearly 4,000 feet lower than Orizava,, and looks quite diminutive when the Peak is visible at the same time, altliough when not seen together, the eye rests with satisfaction upon so magnificent an object. On the sloping ground, which descends from the foot of Orizava to the sea, are situated the towns of Cordova and Orizava, which are celebrated for the MEXICO IN 1827. 193 tobacco and coffee raised in their vicinity. The same district produces the best Vanilla, as well as the Jalap, and Sarsaparilla, which have been men- tioned amongst the exports of Veracruz. A few Indian villages are scattered over this rich country, in every part of which but little exertion is required on the part of man in order to draw a subsistence from the exuberant fertility of the soil. Immense forests occupy the intervening spaces, abounding in every variety of timber, but rarely visited, except by the Indians, at the season for collecting the crop of Vanilla : they are watered by the streams which de- scend from the slope of the Cordillera, and produce, during the greatest part of the year, the fruits of the Tropics in such profusion, that Victoria subsisted upon them almost entirely, during the eighteen months which he passed there, without seeing a human being. There are many indications of their having possessed a much larger population at the time of the Conquest, as the ruins of towns, and for- tifications, have been discovered, which could only have been raised by very numerous Tribes : but, like every thing connected with the Indian race, their history is wrapped in obscurity, and with regard to some, not even a tradition now remains. Jalapa. is indebted to the peculiarity of its position for the extreme softness of its climate. The town stands upon a little platform 4,335 feet above the level of the sea, and would consequently be even more exposed than the Encerro to the North-west VOL. II. o 194 MEXICO IN 1827. winds, which have the effect of stunting the vege- tation both above and below this favoured spot, were it not protected from their violence by an intervening ridge of mountains ; while this being exactly the height, at which the clouds suspended over the ocean touch the Cordillera, there is a constant humidity in the atmosphere, which gives a balmy feel to the air, and a delightful freshness to every thing around. After climbing the tedious ascent from Plan del Rio, nearly the whole of which lies through a dreary and monotonous country, the little declivity which forms the last mile and a half of the approach to Jalapa, seems at all seasons a paradise : but its beauty vanishes the instant that you wander beyond the limits of the enchanted ground. This is more par- ticularly the case on the ascent towards the Table- land, which becomes excessively steep almost imme- diately after leaving Jalapa, and continues uninter- ruptedly so as far as Las Vigas. The distance be- tween the two points does not exceed eighteen miles, while the difference of elevation amounts to 3,485 feet; we were therefore prepared to expect a great change of temperature, although we were far from calculating upon a transition so sudden and so com- plete, as that which we experienced. We left Jalapa about twelve o'clock on the morn- ing of the 24th of December, with a cloudless sky, and the Thermometer at 70"; but before we got half-way to Las Vigas, a Norte came on upon the coast, and in an instant we found ourselves enveloped MEXICO IN 1827. 195 in clouds, which, both in appearance and effect, strik- ingly resembled a November Scotch mist. Our cloaks proved insufficient to keep out the chilling cold ; and as to the moisture, we soon found that our only chance was to push rapidly on, wherever the road would admit of it, by which means we contrived to reach our quarters for the night without being entirely wet through. The change in the scenery about us, was, in every respect, equal to that which had taken place in the atmosphere. At a very early period of the day we lost sight of the gardens of Ja- lapa; and although hedges planted with Chirimoyas extended about a league beyond the town, they soon gave place to plants of a hardier growth. These again gradually yielded to the Mexican Oak, and latterly even that to the Fir, which reigned for the last few miles in solitary pre-eminence. The light bamboo cottages of the Indians, which, notwithstand- ing my objections to them as places of accommoda* tion on the road, were pretty and fantastic, were replaced by buildings of a more solid structure, and consequently better adapted to the climate, but without any pretensions to beauty. I thought them very like the houses in parts of Sweden, and particularly in Dalecarlia, which are composed of unhewn trunks of trees, rudely fastened together, and surrounded with inclosures, twelve feet high, to protect the cattle against the wolves. But still, in the midst of this ungenial scene, there are many features that remind the traveller of the singular o 2! 196 MEXICO IN 1827. character of the country, through which he is pass- ing. About two leagues from Las Vigas, there is a district covered with vesicular lava : the ground is strewed as far as the eye can reach with masses of black, calcined rock, the appearance of which evi- dently announces their volcanic origin. In some places these masses are of an enormous size ; in others, they look as if they had been pulverized by some gigantic steam-engine ; but in all, it seems as if but a few years had elapsed since the eruption which produced them took place, although not even a tradition with regard to its date is now in existence. We found the Old Veracruz causeway in a suf- ficiently good state of preservation between Jalapa and Las Vigas, to afford an easy passage even for carriages ; the horses and mules, however, suffer exceedingly in the steeper parts of the ascent, from the difficulty of getting a good footing on the hard pavement. After passing through the villages of La Cruz de la Ciiesta, la Hoy a, and San Miguel el Soldado, between which we had been taught to expect some picturesque scenery, which the mist prevented us from perceiving, we reached Las Vigas about dusk, where we found very comfortable quar- ters prepared for us in the house of the Cura, and obtained a sufficiency of fowls to furnish a tolerable supper. No other meat was to be procured in the village, or bread ; but our carriages came up in time to supply us with the last, as well as with some pine- MEXICO IN 1827. 197 apples and Chirimoyas, of which a stock had been laid in at Jalapa. The Chirimoya is a fruit un- known, I believe, in Europe : in size it is larger than the largest Orange ; the rind is green, and full of little inequalities, but the pulp is a beautiful white, of such delicacy that it must be eaten with a spoon, as it assumes a rusty tinge if cut with a knife: the flavour is that of the strawberry, combined with other fruits. I seldom recollect suffering more from cold than I did at Las Vigas : we probably felt the severity of the weather the more from having been relaxed by a month of unusually hot weather on our passage from Madeira to Veracruz. The inhabitants are but little affected by it ; for although the rooms are boarded, and some precautions taken to exclude the air, a fireplace is a thing unknown ; and even the Spanish brasero seems not in common use. There was, however, something more than imagination in our chilHness ; for at seven the next morning the thermometer was at 41°, (about 30° below the tem- perature of Jalapa,) and the ground during the night was covered with a white frost. Our horses, many of which had been bred in the Tierra Calietite, suf- fered even more than ourselves ; for although we succeeded in procuring stabling for them, they were perfectly stiff with cold in the morning, and did not recover the full use of their legs until half the day's journey was concluded. The road from Las Vigas to Perote is very steep 198 MEXICO IN 1827. and bad. It was once nearly completed, at the ex- pence of the Veracruz Consulado, in the same mag- nificent style as the rest of the causeway ; but not a vestige now remains of their labours. During the Civil War, the ground between Jalapa and Perote was obstinately disputed by the Insurgents, who, in their attempts to cut off the communication between the Capital and the Coast, destroyed every part of the road that was not actually in the possession of the Royalist forces, which were stationed in con- siderable numbers at Jalapa. Hence the marks of devastation, which commence at an equal distance above and below the town. We were four hours in reaching Perote on horseback, although the distance is not above four leagues ; and as to the carriages, we left them, as usual, far behind. The road winds almost continually through a pine forest, with occa- sional clearings, the fences round which serve to show the little value that timber possesses in these districts, as they are constructed with whole trunks of trees piled lengthways, one upon another, in wasteful profusion. These symptoms of tlie pre- sence of man increased as we approached Perote. After passing the village of Cruz Blanca, we passed two large Haciendas, or Farms, surrounded by ex- tensive fields of wheat, barley, and Indian corn, which, when the crop is on the ground, may, I dare say, justify Humboldt's description of their beauty. When we saw them, they had assumed the mono- tonous colouring peculiar to the Table-land during MEXICO IN 1827. 199 the dry months ; and there was, consequently, but little to attract the attention or gratify the sight. Perote, San Juan de Uloa, Acapulco, and San Bias, being the only fortresses which the Vice- royalty of Mexico contained, we were curious to see a place to which the Natives appeared to attach no little importance, and naturally conceived that it would be so situated as to command some one of the principal mountain-passes, through which an in- vading army would endeavour to penetrate into the Interior. We were disappointed, therefore, at find- ing the Castle placed beyond the last ridge of the mountains, upon the borders of one of those im- mense plains, which extend, almost without inter- ruption, for fifty miles in the direction of the Capi- tal. It is, in fact, a mere depot for arms and bullion ; for, although regularly fortified with four bastions and abundance of heavy artillery, it is too small to be of importance, and would probably not be taken into account at all by an enemy's force on its march towards the Central Provinces. The town, which lies about half a mile from the fortress, consists of one long street, with flat-roofed houses, seldom rising above the ground-floor, low windows, mostly without glass, and whitewashed walls. It affords, altogether, a fair specimen of the style of architecture which the Spaniards have introduced into all their American Colonies, where, with the exception of the Capitals, houses of two stories are seldom seen. We were received with great hospi- 200 MEXICO IN 1827. tality by the Governor and Officers of the garrison, but proceeded almost immediately to the village of Tepeyagualco, (about seven leagues farther on,) which we reached a little before dusk. Perote may be regarded as the Eastern extremity of the Table-land : it is situated 7,692 feet above the level of the sea, and as it is but little protected from the North-west winds, its climate is at times exceedingly severe. In the immediate vicinity of the town, the ground is fertile, and the Cerealia succeed rem.arkably well ; but as you advance into the Interior, the sterility of the soil increases at every step. The pine-forests are confined entirely to the mountains ; they cease to thrive upon the tracts of flat country by which the ridges which intersect them at intervals are separated from each other. These form a succession of basins, which evidently must have been, at some former period, extensive lakes. The action of the water upon the foot of the mountains, by which these basins are environed, is distinctly visible, and you can even trace the line to which it appears to have risen. It seems to have partaken of the nature of that of the Lake of Mexico, for, in receding, it has left the ground cov^ered with a thick coat of Tequesquite, or Carbonate of Soda, which is gradually destroying every trace of vege- tation. The whole plain already produces only a scanty supply of food for the flocks of sheep which are occasionally seen wandering over it ; and as the water that still remains is brackish, and grows every MEXICO IN 1827. 201 year more scarce, it is probable that the district will ultimately become a desert. I hardly know any thing more gloomy than the ride from Perote to Tepeyagiialco ; the uniformity of the scene is only broken by little hills which start up abruptly every here and there, covered with the Aloe, the Cactus, and a few dwarf palms, which almost conceal the masses of lava of which they are composed. Upon the whole, we were none of us inclined to dispute the justice of the appellation by which this tract of country is distinguished, " el Mai Pais," although there are some redeeming points to which the European traveller may look back with interest, and even with pleasure. The first of these is the view of Orizava, which is seen from this dreary plain to greater advantage than even from Jalapa ; and the second, the frequency with which specimens of "mirage" occur, in a degree of perfection which the great Sahara itself can hardly surpass. Prepared as we were for this optical illusion, we were more than once completely deceived by it, and fancied that we really saw before us a vast expanse of water, with trees, houses, and every surrounding object, beau- tifully reflected in it. The whirlwinds of sand too, which occasionally rise in majestic columns from the centre of the plain, were to me a novel sight ; and we were all much struck with an insulated conical mountain, called El Cerro de Pizarro,* which had * The outline of this mountain is given in the drawing of the Maguey, vol. 1. Sect. III. 202 MEXICO IN 1827. attracted our attention almost immediately after leaving Perote, and which, on a nearer approach, we found to be composed entirely of masses of lava, so black and gloomy, as to give to the whole the appearance of having very recently emerged from the bowels of the earth. The house in which we were lodged at Tepey- agiialco, contained one large Sala, which served us for bed-room, dining-room, and every other purpose ; in this, however, the whole extent of the accommo- dations consisted, for no provisions of any kind were to be procured, and the servants having neglected to lay in a stock at Perote, we were reduced to very short allowance. Fortunately, we had a couple of cases of preserved meat with us, which we converted into soup, and this, v/ith a few crusts of bread which were discovered in one of the carriages, saved us from a course of Tortillas and Chile, upon which the servants were dieted, ad libitum, as a proper recom- pense for net having been better purveyors. Few people like this dish at first, although it con- stitutes the food of tv.'o-thirds of the population of Mexico. There is an unpleasant taste in the maize, to which, as well as to the extreme pungency of the Chile, it requires some time to get reconciled. 1 never learnt to eat it with pleasure, though I have sometimes had recourse to it in the absence of more palatable food. After a most detestable breakfast, we set off, at an early hour on the 26th, for Nopaluca, (a town about MEXICO IN 1827. 203 twelve leagues from Tepeyagualco,) having taken the precaution of sending one of the soldiers of our escort in advance, in order to avoid, if possible, a second scarcity. Our road lay through a continu- ation of the plains which I have already described, where, with the exception of a few hawks and vul- tures, a wolf or two, and some Coyotes, (a large kind of jackall,) which are always found prowling in the vicinity of a flock of sheep, not a living crea- ture was to be seen. It was with considerable sa- tisfaction that, about one o'clock, we crossed a little ridge of hills that forms the North-western bound- ary of the Mai Pais, and found that we were about to enter upon a less dreary scene. From this ridge, to El Ojo de Agua, a solitary inn, which takes its name from a fine spring of water that rises near the house, a sensible improvement took place. A few trees and Haciendas, with little patches of cultivation around them, broke, at intervals, the monotony of the view : we saw some large flocks of sheep, a cow or two, with some horses, and as we approached the stream to which these indications of fertility were due, we found ducks and other water-fowl in great abundance. There is a singular view of Orizava from the inn-yard at Ojo de Agua. The mountain stands exactly opposite the gateway, from which a long vaulted passage leads to the Patio, or court. This passage has the effect of confining the view in such a manner that the eye rests exclusively upon the 204 MEXICO IN 1827. Peak, which appears, when thus seen, to stand alone, detached from the chain of inferior hills by which it is connected with the Coffre. In a clear day, the effect is very striking, as, from the purity of the at- mosphere, the outHne of this enormous mass is dis- tinctly and sharply defined ; but I should think it very difficult to transfer this effect to paper, so as to give any idea of the magnificence of the object. It is a natural picture as it now stands, and I should much doubt the power of art to do justice to it. The boundary line between the States of Vera- cruz and La Puebla runs close to Ojo de Agua, in consequence of which the guard which had accom- panied us from the Coast, was replaced by an escort of Lancers, which had been stationed there by the Authorities of La Puebla, to await our arrival. The men were remarkably well mounted and equipped, and in the officer, Don Juan Gomez, we found a young Creole of gentlemanlike manners, and agree- able conversation, with whose society, during the rest of our journey, we were all much pleased. After passing an hour at the inn, where there were provisions in abundance to make amends for the scantiness of our morning fare, we proceeded to- wards Nopaluca, observing with pleasure, as we advanced, that a number of little farms gave the surest possible indication of a more fertile soil. At Santa Ana, a village about two leagues from Ojo de Agua, we were received with great politeness by the Cura, an old man who came out to meet us MEXICO IN 1827. 205 in his sacerdotal dress. Such an instance of cour- tesy towards heretics, was too remarkable not to be most gratefully acknowledged, and we remained for some time receiving and returning compliments, to the great edification of a crowd of by-standers, who all regarded us with intense curiosity. We did not reach Nopaliica till dusk, when we found excellent quarters at the house of one of the Regi- dores of the town, Don Raymundo Gonsalez, whose wife and three daughters were all employed in pre- paring supper for us, with their own fair hands. We were much pleased with the appearance of the town, which is clean and pretty : the houses are indeed, only built of Tapia, or rammed earth ; but as the walls are kept white-washed, and in good re- pair, there is notliing to denote the humble mate- rials of which they are formed. The land about the town is subdivided into a multiplicity of small en- closures, which it was quite pleasing to see once more, after the deserts over which our eyes had been roaming for two Avhole days. They indicated habits of industry, of which we had seen but few traces ; for in the Tierra Caliente, it was rather the bounty of Nature, than the exertions of the inhabitants, that we had found cause to admire : their indolence seemed to increase exactly in the same ratio, as the facility with which their wants were supplied. But on the Table-land, the necessaries of life are not to be obtained without some efforts : the fertility of the soil is great, but it requires the hand of the culti- 206 MEXICO IN 1827. vator to call it forth ; and to this the laborious habits of the agricultural population, in the Central Provinces of Mexico, are probably due. On the evening of our arrival at Nopaltica, a cou- rier came in from the Capital with letters, which in- formed us that disturbances had taken place at La Puebla, the Capital of the Province, where it had been our intention to sleep on the following night, which, although not serious, induced the Supreme Government to wish that the Commission should take another route, which branching off to the North, across the Llanos de Apan, (a district re- markable for its fertility,) enters the valley of Mex- ico by Otumba and San Cristoval, leaving La Puebla far to the South and West. With this wish we of course complied, and two dragoons of the escort were dispatched, in order to prepare quarters for us at any Hacienda, in the direction of Otumba, where they might be able and willing to afford us hospitality for the night. We ourselves did not set out till ten o'clock, when we took the road to Huamantla, (a little town four leagues from Nopa- ltica,) which led us through a succession of large fields of corn, barley, and maize, interspersed with plantations of the Aloe, {Agare Americana,) from which the wine of the natives, Pulque, is extracted. Having already given a detailed account of the process by which this liquor is prepared, (Book I. Section HL) it would be superfluous to repeat it here ; I shall, therefore, merely state that Pulque is MEXICO IN 1837. 207 nowhere found in greater perfection than in the dis- trict through which we were about to pass, where the Maguey plantations, from their vicinity to La Puebla and Mexico, constitute one great source of the prosperity of the inhabitants. Although but very short notice had been given at Huamantla of our intention to visit that place, we found a great part of the population waiting in the streets to receive us ; nor was it possible to with- stand the solicitations of the Cura, at whose house we were absolutely compelled to alight. We were immediately visited by the Ayuntamiento, with the Alcalde at its head, as well as by the officers of a regiment quartered in the town ; after which we were conducted to a room, where a dinner for thirty people had been prepared, in a style of hospitality which would have done honour to any country in the world. The moment that we quitted the table, our kind hosts, who were determined not do things by halves, sent for all our servants, as well as the escort, who were regaled v^^ith the innumerable dishes which we had been compelled to leave un- touched ; while we, being very great people, were solicited to exhibit ourselves from the balcony to the crowd assembled below. I mention these cir- cumstances, trifling as they may appear, because they serve to show the feelings with which the pro- spect of an intercourse with Great Britain was hailed by the Mexicans. Nothing could be more decisive in this respect than our reception, particularly in 208 MEXICO IN 1827. the smaller towns, where, whatever was done, was done spontaneously by the inhabitants themselves, and not under the direction of the Government, as was the case at Jalapa and Veracruz. The population of Huamantla does not exceed three thousand souls. The town ranks as second in the district of Tlitscala, to which it belongs ; in- deed, it is but little inferior in importance to the Capital itself, which has now " fallen from its high estate," and does not contain above four thousand inhabitants : a sad change from the days when it set at defiance the whole power of Montezuma, and baffled, for some time, the efforts of Cortes, to force a passage through its territory. On leaving Huamantlii, which we did not accom- plish until a very late hour, it being three o'clock before dinner was concluded, we took the road to Acocotlan, a large Hacienda about five leagues from the town, at which we found that we were to sleep. Our ride was a beautiful one, as our guide conducted us through a rich country, at the foot of the Ma- linche, a mountain which forms the connecting link between the Volcanos of Mexico and that of Ori- zava, and at the same time disseminates fertiUty throughout the surrounding district by the number- less streams which descend from its summit. From whichever side the Malinche is seen, its figure is always a perfect cone : its slope produces some of the finest wheat known in La Puebla ; and lower down, wherever the mountain-torrents afford any MEXICO IN 1827. 209 facility for irrigation, crops of maize are grown, which, in a good year, increase in the ratio of 400 fanegas for every one that is put into the ground. The Hacienda of Acocotlan has Httle to recommend it but its situation : nothing, however, can be finer than this. The balcony of the great Sala, or state- room, in which we were lodged, commands a view of five mountains, two of which are upwards of two thousand feet higher than the highest mountain in Europe. We saw Orizava with its peak coideur de rose, reflecting the last rays of the setting sun ; — the Coffre de Perote already half sunk into obscu- rity ; — the Malinche quite in the shade before us ; and the two great Volcanos which separate La Puebla from Mexico, (Popocatepetl and Istacci- huatl,) with an occasional ray of light playing upon their snowy summits. We were all admiring the magnificence of this scene, when the silence around us was broken in the most unexpected manner. A long file of Indians returning from the labours of the day, drew up in a line before the house, and began to chant the Ave Maria, or evening hymn. The music was very simple, and few of the voices good, yet the whole, like the Ranz des vaches of the Swiss, derived an interest from the splendid scenery around, and made an impression, which much sweeter strains, under other circumstances, might have failed to produce. Our host at Acocotlan was a most respectable man ; one of the numerous class of minor proprie- VOL. II. P 210 MEXICO IN 1827. tors, who continue, all their lives, to cultivate the spot upon which they are born, and transmit from generation to generation an estate, which supports themselves and their children, in comfort, and com- parative affluence. He received us with great hos- pitality, and gave us a most excellent supper, with some Pulque, which, unaccustomed as we were to the beverage, most of our party thought exceedingly agreeable. This was not the case with the Chile, a powerful species of Capsicum, both green and red, of which the Mexicans make an immoderate use in most of their dishes : the taste is not disagreeable, but the pungency is so great, that a stranger v.v.ds it difficult to taste it without inconvenience. Robinson states, in his account of Mina's expedition, that with many of the American officers, who were compelled to live for some days upon Tortillas and Chile, on their march towards the Interior, excoriation was the consequence. Our next stage from Acocotlan was Cnautman- zingo, where we were advised to pass the night, although the distance was only seven leagues, on account of the difficulty of reaching any other rest- ing-place calculated to receive so large a party. The road was mostly good, but as it continued to wind around the foot of the Malinchc, it was occasionally intersected by deep barrancas, (or ravines,) which although perfectly passable for horsemen, retarded the progress of the carriages considerably. In one place we came to a descent of about twelve feet per- MEXICO IN 1827. 211 pendicular, which there was no possibility of avoid- ing, as the barranca, both above and below, was exceedingly deep and rugged. The carriages were before us when this obstacle to our farther progress was discovered, and a dragoon came galloping back to announce that it was impossible to proceed. Upon reaching the place, however, we discovered that there was such an abundance of loose stones in every part of the ravine, that it would not be diffi- cult to construct an inclined plane by which the carriages might descend ; and this our joint efforts soon accomplished, a part of the escort having as- sisted in the conveyance of materials, while the rest broke down with their lances the side of the bar- ranca. In about half an hour a very tolerable bridge was manufactured, and we had the pleasure of see- ing the carriages aU reach the bottom in safety. At Cuautmanzingo, where we arrived at an early hour, we were welcomed with the same hospitality which had characterized our reception everywhere, during our progress through the country. The most valuable portion of the estate consisted in some extensive corn-lands watered by the Malinche, and in the Maguey plantations more immediately about the house. These we were glad to have an oppor- tunity of visiting ; and a part of the afternoon was employed in inspecting the progress of Pulque-mak- ing in aU its stages. There is nothing disagreeable either in the smell or appearance of the liquor on the spot where it is thus prepared. The greatest atten- P 2 212 MEXICO IN 1827. tion is paid to cleanliness in the buildings connected with it, and it derives a very refreshing coolness from the slight state of fermentation in which it ought always to be drunk. It is only by exposure to the sun, and a careless mode of conveyance to the great towns, which are at a considerable distance, that it acquires that unpleasant flavour which Hum- boldt compares to the smell of putrid meat. In this state it becomes really offensive ; although to the amateurs in the capital who are unaccustomed to Pulque in its original purity, it is said to be a recom- mendation. On the same principle, in Madrid, Irish butter is preferred to fresh, which is thought taste- less, and insipid. We left Cuautmanzingo early on the morning of the 29th of December, but stopped to breakfast at San Nicolas, a fine Hacienda belonging to the Conde de Santiago, with whose family we had the pleasure of making acquaintance, as they happened to be residing in the country at the time. This was our first introduction to the Creole nobility, and we were much pleased with the unaffected politeness of their manners. After a most sumptuous entertainment, we were allowed to proceed on our journey, but not until our escort and servants had been made to partake of the Count's hospitality, which was ex- tended even to the horses of our very numerous party. About four in the afternoon, we reached the Venta de las Indias, (the Inn of the Indies,) the mag- nificent name of which had led us to expect better MEXICO IN 1827. 213 accommodations than the house, which is very small, was calculated to afford. The inn is about eleven leagues from Cuautmanzingo, and seven from San Nicolas. The whole intervening space is laid out either in fields of Maize, Frijoles, wheat, and barley, or in Maguey plantations, the value of which in- creases in proportion to their vicinity to the Capi- tal. The country, as the name denotes, (Los Lla- nos, the plains, of Apan,) is flat and uninteresting. A few great Haciendas are scattered, at inter- vals, over the plain ; but we did not see a tree throughout the whole district. Game we found in abimdance, particularly hares, which differ from ours only in colour, having a much larger propor- tion of white, and being sometimes spotted with a sort of greyish blue. On our approach to Otumba, (Dec. 30,) the ap- pearance of a large species of Peruvian pepper, called El Arbol del Peru, and a little broken ground, announced our vicinity to the mountain-ridge which still separated us from the Valley of Mexico. The Arbol del Peru is, I believe, known in Europe, al- though at Madrid, where I have seen it, it was a pretty, but diminutive shrub ; in Mexico, where it is very common, it attains a considerable size, and is remarkably ornamental, and graceful in its ap- pearance. Oturnba, like most of the smaller towns through which we had passed, appeared to have suffered con- siderably during the Revolution. From its vicinity 214 MEXICO IN 1827. both to the Capital, and to the Llanos, where a for- midable Insurgent force was organized during the Civil War, it was transferred frequently from one party to the other, never remaining long in the pos- session of either, but equally maltreated by both. It will require many years of tranquillity to oblite- rate the traces of this period of universal suifering. As usual, on entering the town, we found a din- ner provided for us at the house of the Alcalde, of which we were forced to partake, though we re- gretted a delay, which retarded our arrival at San Juan de Teotihuacan, (where we slept,) until after dusk, and consequently prevented us from visiting the Mexican antiquities in the vicinity of that place. These ancient monuments consist of two immense pyramids, dedicated to the Sun and the Moon, trun- cated, as all these pyramids are, and considerably defaced both by the hand of time, and by the fana- ticism of the first conquerors, who seem to have left nothing undone in order to destroy every memorial of the primitive religion of the country. Such, how- ever, is the solidity of these structures, that it has not been found possible to complete their destruc- tion. They stand at some distance from the road, and it was nearly dusk when we passed them ; but seen even thus, there was something imposing in the enormous size of tliese masses, which rise conspi- cuous in the middle of the valley, as if to testify of ages long gone by, and of a people whose power they alone are left to record. Reflections such as MEXICO IX 1827. 215 these strike the imagination very forcibly after tra- versing the plain of Otiimba, where the Mexicans made one of their most gallant struggles against the superior skill and weapons of their invaders. I could not help calling to mind the description given by Solis of that plain, — (a description which used to be my delight as a boy, long before I ever dream- ed that it would be my fate to visit the spot,) — " with the rays of the sun playing upon the crests of the Mexican warriors, adorned with feathers of a thousand hues," and contrasting the picture which he has traced of that brilliant army, with the state of ignorance, wretchedness, and abject submission, to which their descendants have been reduced since the Conquest. Whatever be the advantages which they may derive from the recent changes, (and the nature of these time alone can determine,) the fruits of the introduction of our boasted civilization into the New World have been hitherto bitter indeed. Throughout America the Indian race has been sacri- ficed ; nor can I discover that in New Spain any one step has been taken for their improvement. In the neighbourhood of the Capital nothing can be more wretched than their appearance ; and although, under a Republican form of government, they must enjoy, in theoiy at least, an equality of rights with every other class of citizens, they seemed, practically, at the period of my first visit, to be under the orders of every one, whether officer, soldier, churchman, or civilian, who chose to honour them with a command. 216 MEXICO IN 1827. We left San Jiuin early on the 31st of December, and commenced, not without much curiosity, our approach to the Capital. We were gratified almost immediately with a view of the Valley of Mexico, but the day being unusually cloudy, neither the Lakes, nor the town, were distinctly visible. After descending from the ridge of hills, which forms the boundary to the North-east, and traversing a long stone causeway, by which the lake of Tezcuco is separated from that of San Christoval, we arrived about twelve o'clock at the Guadalupe gate, where we were met by Mr. Alaman, the Minister for Fo- reign Affairs. This gentleman, after making us enter a large state-coach, which had been Iturbide's, but which was now destined by the Government for our use, conducted us to a house on the Ala- meda, or great Public Walk, which had been fur- nished for our reception, where he left us to make our own arrangements, after begging us to consider ourselves completely at home, and adding that we should find every thing that we could possibly want provided for us. Of this unexpected courtesy we were glad, at first, to avail ourselves, as all the heavy baggage had been left at Jalapa ; only a few mules, with our beds, portmanteaus, and a canteen, having accompanied us to the Capital. This is a necessary arrangement in Mexican travelling, as the ordinary pace of a Mu- eteer , when his mules carry their full load of twelve Arrobas, (300 lbs.) does not exceed four leagues a MEXICO IN 1827. 217 day : with a load of 200 lbs. they keep pace with a carriage without difficulty, and are then much preferable to any other mode of conveyance for baggage, as no roads, however bad, can stop them, while with any thing upon wheels, difficulties are constantly occurring. None of our party had suffisred from sickness on the journey, yet we were all much fatigued on reach- ing the Capital. There is something very trying at first in the climate of the Tropics, particularl}^ where, as in our case, the sedentary life of a ship is ex- changed for one of sudden and violent exertion. The transition, too, from the relaxing heat of the Coast, to the rarefied atmosphere of the Table-land, was severely felt by us all. We had disdained to use the precautions which the natives uniformly take when travelling, by muffling up the lower part of the face in a white handkerchief, and the consequence was that our lips were cracked by the sun, and the peculiar subtility of the air, in a man- ner that long left us a' painful recollection of our journey. In every other respect we could only look back to it with pleasure. We had traversed a coun- try, hitherto visited by very few of our countrymen, where, if there were but few beauties, there was novelty in abundance to attract us, and we had received, at every step, the most unequivocal proofs, that the Commission with which we were entrusted was a most acceptable one to the great mass of the inhabitants. Many of them termed the commence- 218 MEXICO IN 1827. ment of a more unrestricted intercourse with Eu- rope, " the second discovery of the New World ;" and such it has indeed proved to us, for we have acquired more information respecting America, and a greater insight into the capabilities of the country, and the character of its inhabitants, in the last three years, than had been obtained during the three centuries which preceded them. MEXICO IN 1827. 219 SECTION II. RESIDENCE IN THE CAPITAL ; AND RETURN TO THE COAST. The approach to Mexico did not give us a very favourable idea either of the Capital, or of the coun- try about it. The valley on the Oturaba side pos- sesses none of the beautiful features which are so remarkable to the South and East ; for, having more recently formed a part of the great lake of Tezcuco, which in the rainy season still extends as far as San Cristobal, the waters in receding have left a barren tract, covered with a crust of Carbonate of So 3a. Sterility prevails, with few interruptions, from the village of San Juan de Teotihiiacan to the Convent of Guadalupe, in which the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Patroness of Mexico, has taken up her abode. A drawing of this rich but singular building will be found in the first volume : it is difficult to say to what style of architecture it belongs, as all preten- tions to uniformity are destroyed by the Capillas, (chapels,) erected in the vicinity of the principal 220 MEXICO IN 1827. edifice by the nioie wealthy votaries of the Virgin, one of which is very remarkable, for, having been built in consequence of an escape from shipwreck, in order to commemorate the event, it has assumed as much as possible the form of the sails of a ship. The avenue which extends from Guadalupe to the gates of the Capital is traced upon the line of one of the ancient Mexican causeways : it is broad and paved in the centre, with a row of trees on each side ; but tlie suburb to which it leads by no means corresponds with this magnificence. It is dreary and desolate, the Indian population by which it was formerly tenanted having been destroyed by an epidemic disorder, while their houses, which are merely composed of mud-bricks baked in the sun, are entirely in ruins. Such a scene agreed too ill with the picture which Humboldt has drawn of Mexico, not to occasion us considerable disappointment, nor were we satisfied with the assurances which we received, that we had not passed through any one of the principal streets of the town, on our way from the Gate, until a view of the splendid Calle de San Francisco, which enters the Alameda close to the house in which we were lodged, convinced us of the propriety of not forming too hasty an opinion. The second day made converts of us all : in the course of it we had occasion to visit most of the central parts of the town, and, after seeing the great Plaza, the Cathedral, the Palace, and the noble streets which communicate with them, MEXICO IN 1827. 221 we were forced to confess not only that Humboldt's praises did not exceed the truth, but that amongst the various Capitals of Europe, there were few that could support with any advantage a comparison with Mexico. In the general style of the architecture there is something very peculiar. The streets are broad, airy, and drawn at right angles, so that by looking down any two, at the point where they intersect each other, a view of nearly the whole extent of the town is commanded. The houses are spacious, but low, seldom exceeding one story ; the roofs are flat, and as they sometimes communicate with each other for a considerable distance, when seen from an ele- vation, they look like immense terraces, the para- pets by which they are separated being lost in the distance. Few of the public buildings attain the height to which an European eye is accustomed in such edifices. This is owing partly to the difficulty of laying a good foundation in the valley of Mexico, where water is uniformly found at a very few feet from the surface, and partly from the frequency of earthquakes. The first renders it necessary to raise all the larger buildings upon piles, while the second, although the shocks are seldom severe, would en- danger the safety of very lofty edifices, which are the first to suffer. Every one who has resided in a Southern climate, knows how much the purity of the atmosphere tends to diminish distances ; but even at Madrid, where 222 MEXICO IN 1827. the summer sky is beautifully clear, I never saw it produce this effect in so extraordinary a degree as at Mexico. The whole valley is surrounded with mountains, most of which are, at least, fifteen miles from the capital, yet on looking down any of the principal streets, (particularly in the direction of San Angel, or San Augiistin,) it appears to be terminated by a mass of rocks, which are seen so distinctly, that on a fine day, one can trace all the undulations of the surface, and almost count the trees, and little patches of vegetation, which are scattered over it. The general appearance of the town at the period of our arrival was dull ; except at an early hour of the morning, when the great streets presented a very lively scene, particularly those near the Cathe- dral, and the Plaza Mayor, where the Parian, and the principal shops are situated. In these we found many articles of domestic manufacture ; hats, with cotton and woollen cloths, from La Puebla and Queretaro ; — a great variety of coloured blankets, called Mangas, used as a cloak when riding by most people, and as a substitute for every other kind of clothing by the lower orders ; — leather, cmiously wrought, from Guadalajara; — with saddles, spurs, lassos, and all the trappings with which the Mexican horses are usually disfigured. All these were con- centrated upon one point ; near which, in the Calle de Plateros, there was a whole nest of silversmiths. In the other parts of the town, some cumbrous fur- niture was occasionally to be met with, as bedsteads, MEXICO IN 1827. 223 presses, and tables, painted, varnished, and inlaid at a vast expence, but of a most uncouth shape, and generally as little calculated for comfort, as for orna- ment. All the other contents of the shops appeared to be European, but the supply was scanty, and the price enormous. Nature, on the other hand, as if to compensate the want of the luxuries of the Old World, appeared to have been most munificent in her gifts. For many days after my arrival, I could never pass a common fruit-stall, without stopping to admire the variety of fruits and flowers with which it was adorned. Pine-apples, Oranges, Bananas, Chirimoyas, Melons, Grenaditos de China, and a thousand other delicious fruits, are found in abun- dance during the greatest part of the year, together with Pears, Apples, and all the productions of more Northern climates. Many of these fruits do not, it is true, thrive on the Table-land ; but it must al- ways be borne in mind that Mexico, from the pecu- liarity of its geological structure, and the manner in which heat is modified by height in every part of its territory, combines, sometimes within a very few leagues, the greatest possible variety of climates. On the road to Acapulco, for instance, a descent, as rapid as that from Las Vigas to Jalapa, commences within a few miles of the Capital, so that on reach- ing the plains of Cuernavaca, you find a Tierra Caiie/ite, with all its various productions, from which Mexico derives a constant and most abundant sup- ply. On the Table-land, flowers are to be found at 224 MEXICO IX 1827. all seasons, but particularly from March to June, when roses spring up in such profusion, that, on the dias de fiesta, hundreds of men and women, of the very lowest classes, are seen returning covered with garlands from tlie Chinrimpiis. The trees, too, preserve their foliage during ten months of the year. With such advantages as these, the valley about the Capital might be made a paradise ; yet there is hardly a single country-house to be seen, except in the Pueblos of San Angel, and San Agustin, which have been almost abandoned since the commence- ment of the Revolution. The principal feature in the smaller villages is a little white chapel, which produces a beautiful effect when seen through the trees at a distance ; but, as you approach, the charm is broken, for it is usually surrounded by nothing but wretched hovels, which afford shelter to a few Indian families, with all their live stock, compressed into the smallest possible compass. Yet there are very pretty rides in many directions : Chapultepec and Tacubaya, (of which I shall have occasion to speak later,) are within a moderate distance ; and, by taking the direction of the Piiseo de liis Vigas, you see the remains of the Chinampas, or floating gardens, which are to be found at a little distance from the canal of Chalco. It seems to me ques- tionable whether they ever did float, but it is cer- tain that they are now all fixtures : they are sur- rounded, however, by a broad ditch full of water, oV'Cr which a little drawbridge is thrown, to keep MEXICO IN 1B27. 225 lip the communication with terra firma. Of the correctness of the description which Hum])oldt gives of their beauties, it was impossible for us to judge, as, in January, we naturally looked in vain for the hedges of flowers, with which he states them to be adorned : to us they appeared mere kitchen-gardens, and it is, in fact, from thence that the Capital is prin- cipally supplied with vegetables. The hut of the Indian proprietor, far from adding to the attractions of the scene, is generally a miserable hovel, but too well suited, in point of appearance, to the squalid looks and tattered garments of its inhabitants. The canal of Chalco presents a much more lively prospect. Both evening and morning it is covered with canoes, in which the natives convey the pro- duce of their gardens, fruit, flowers, and vegetables, to the Mexican market. Chalco is a large town, situated upon a lake of the same name, about twenty miles to the South-east of the Capital ; the canal which leads to it is very narrow. The canoes mostly used are of two kinds : one, a punt, which is pushed along by men, and contains sometimes the joint stock of two or three families ; the other, a very light narrow canoe, about twelve feet in length, and just broad enough to contain one per- son sitting down, at each end, with their little pro- vision for the market piled up between them. The canoes are chiefly worked by women, with single paddles, with which, however, they are made to skim over the water with great velocity. The VOL. II. Q 226 MEXKO IX 18-27. gesticulations of these ladies, when animated by a little Pulque on their return home, their extreme volubility, and the energy which they display in their quarrels with the tribes of children which they carry about with them, form a curious contrast to their melancholy looks, and extreme taciturnity at all other times. They are, however, a very hardy race, and capable of supporting great fatigue. I have often met, when returning from my rides, whole files of men and women, all loaded, the men with baskets, the women with a couple of children each, setting out from Mexico at five in the evening, to return to their villages, which I usually found, upon inquiry, to be seven or eight miles off"; and this they accomplish in an hour and a half, by con- tinuing steadily at a long Indian trot, which many of them are able to keep up for a surprising dis- tance. If a question be asked of the leader, the whole party stops, and when it is answered, they proceed again together at the same uniform pace. Amongst the many curious scenes that Mexico presented at the end of 1823, I know none with which we were more struck than the Alameda. As compared with the Prado of Madrid, it was, indeed, deprived of its brightest ornament, the women ; for few or none of the ladies of Mexico ever appear in public on foot ; but to compensate this, it had the merit of being totally unlike any thing that we had ever seen before. On a Sunday, or Dia de Fiesta^ the avenues were crowded with enormous coaches. MEXICO IN 1827. 227 mostly without springs, but very highly varnished, and bedizened with extraordinary paintings in lieu of arms, in each of which were seated two or more ladies, dressed in full evening costume, and whiling away the time with a segar en attendant the ap- proach of some of the numerous gentlemen walking or riding near. Nor were tlie equestrians less re- markable ; for most of them were equipped in the full riding- dress of the country, differing only from that worn by the lower orders in the richness of the materials. When made up for display in the Capital, it is enormously expensive. In the first place, the hind-quarters of the horse are covered with a coating of leather, (called the anquera,) sometimes stamped and gilt, and sometimes curiously wrought, but al- ways terminating in a fringe or border of little tags of brass, iron, or silver, which make a prodigious jingling at every step. The saddle, which is of a piece with the anquera, and is adorned in a similar manner, rises before into an inlaid pummel, to which, in the country, the lasso is attached ; while the plated headstall of the bridle is connected by large silver ornaments with the powerful Arabic bit. Fur is sometimes used for the anquera ; and this, when of an expensive kind, (as black bear-skin, or otter- skin,) and embroidered, as it generally is, with broad stripes of gold and silver, makes the value of the whole apparatus amount to four or five hundred dol- lars, (about 100/.) A common leather saddle costs from fifty to eighty dollars. The rider wears a Q 2 228 MEXICO IN 1827. Mexican hat, with a brim six inches wide, a broad edging of gold or silver lace, and a very low crown : he has a jacket, likewise embroidered in gold, or trimmed with rich fur, and a pair of breeches open at the knee, and terminating in two points consider- ably below it, of some extraordinary colom', (pea- green or bleu celeste,) and thickly studded down the sides with large silver buttons. The lower part of the leg is protected by a pair of Guadala- jara stamped-leather boots, curiously wrapped around it, and attached to the knee with embroidered gar- ters ; these descend as far as the ankle, where they are met by shoes of a most peculiar shape, with a sort of wing projecting on the saddle side ;* and the whole is terminated by spurs, (made at Lerma or Toluca,) of so preposterous a size, that many of them weigh a pound and a half, while the rowels of all trail upon the ground, if, by any chance, the wearer is forced to dismount. A cloth manga, or riding-cloak, is often thrown over the front of the saddle, and crossed behind the rider in such a man- ner as to display the circular piece of green or blue velvet in the centre, through which the head is pass- ed when the manga is worn, and which is generally very beautifully embroidered. The cost of the whole dress, when the saddle is of fur, with armas de agua of the same materials, it is not easy to calculate, as * The use of these is more general amongst the middling and lower classes. MEXICO IN 1827. 229 it depends entirely upon the degree of expence to which a person chooses to go in the embroidery. A very handsome saddle may be bought for three hun- dred dollars. I have known two hundred dollars given for a pair of Guadalajara boots, (worked with silver,) but eighty may be taken as a very liberal price. A jacket, not at all particularly fine, would cost as much more. The hat is worth twenty dol- lars ; the breeches, if at all rich, fifty or sixty ; the spurs, with embroidered stirrup-leathers, twenty ; the plated bridle thirty-two ; while a manga of the most ordinary kind is not to be procm-ed under one hundred doUars, and, if at all remarkable, could not be purchased for less than three. The horse usually mounted on these occasions must be a Brazeador,* fat, sleek, and slow, but with remarkably high ac- tion before ; which, it is thought, tends to show off both the animal and the rider to the greatest advan- tage. The tout ensemble is exceedingly picturesque; and the public walks of Mexico will lose much in point of effect, when the riding-dress of England, or France, is substituted, as it probably will be, for a national costume of so very peculiar a character. The Alameda, which is situated nearly at one extremity of the town, communicates with the Paseo Nuevo, a broad avenue of trees, from the extremity of which the road to Chapultepec, and Tacubaya, * The name is taken from the peculiar action of the brazos, or fore-legs, which are doubled uj) at every step, while the whole weight of the horse is thrown upon the hind-quarter. 230 MEXICO IN 1827. branches oft'. The first is a summer palace, built by the celebrated Count Galvez during his Vice- royalty, upon a rock, to the foot of which the waters of the lake of Tezciico formerly extended. Nothing can be more beautiful than its situation, or more striking than the view of the valley of Mexico which it commands. The road to Chapidtepec is divided Ijy an aqueduct, which separates the portion of it destined for carts and mules, from that intended for carriages and equestrians. The structure of this aqueduct is solid ; it consists of nine hundred arches, and the fountain, from which it is supplied, produces the clearest and most pellucid water I almost ever saw. On entering the gardens of Chapultepec, the first object that strikes the eye is the magnificent Cypress, (Sahi/w, Ahiiahuete, or Cupressus disticha,) called the Cypress of Montezuma. It had attained its full p-rowth wheii that monarcli was on the throne, (1520,) so that it must now be, at least, four hundred years old, yet it still retains all the vigour of youthful vegetation. The trunk is forty- one feet in circumference, yet the height is so ma- jestic, as to make even this enormous mass appear slender. On a close inspection, it aj)pears to be composed of three trees, the trunks of which unite towards the root so closely, as to blend into one ; this circumstance, however, led us to give the pre- ference to a second Cypress, not quite equal to the first iu circumference, (it is thirty-eight feet in girth,) huX. as old, as lofty, and distinguislicd by a sliglit MEXICO IN 1827. 231 curve towards the middle of the stern, which gives it a particularly graceful appearance. Both trees are covered, in part, with a parasitic plant, {Tilland- sia usneoides,) resembling long grey moss, which sets off their dark foliage amazingly. They were for- merly surrounded l)y a whole wood of Sabhws as venerable as themselves ; but the Revolution, which spared nothing, did not respect them. A detach- ment of troops was quartered at Chapultepec, which, from its commanding height, is a strong military position ; and although it was never attacked, more damage was done hj these barbarians, than the place would have sustained had it been taken by storm. They cut down a number of the finest old trees for fire-wood, and as no notice was taken of such slight excesses, at a time when licence was the order of the day, it is wonderful that any should have escaped. The view from the Azotea of Chapul- tepec, embraces the whole extent of the valley of Tenochti'tlan, with its lakes and villages, and highly cultivated fields, intersected, every here and there, by rocks of the most uncouth shape, which stand sometimes isolated, and sometimes in groups so very singularly put together, as to give quite a novel character to the scene. Beyond these again, the eye rests upon the two splendid mountains, which form the boundary of the valley to the South-east. The most distant of these, Popocatepelt is higher than any mountain in the Northern division of America, except Mount St. Elias. Iztaccihuatl, which is 232 MEXICO IN 1827. much nearer, is two thousand feet lower ; but, from whatever part of the valley the two are seen, they stand proudly preeminent ; and, in the evening, it is beautiful to watch the effect of the last rays of hght playing upon their summits, whilst every thing around is sinking into obscurity. In the interior of Chapultepec, there is nothing at all worthy of remark, for the principal apart- ments are neither spacious, nor lofty ; but the building, when seen from without, is a beautiful object, and one, upon which the eye rests with plea- sure in almost every part of the valley. The great road to Lerma and Toliica, which di- verges to the South-west from Chapultepec, passes through Taciibaya, a village about four miles from the gates of the Capital, which was formerly the country residence of the Archbishop of Mexico. The episcopal palace is situated u})on an elevated spot, with a large olive plantation, and a garden attached to it. Tiie windows of the principal rooms command an extent of country nearly equal to that seen from Chapvdtepec, but the whole place has a deserted and melancholy appearance, having been entirely neglected since the Revolution. Amongst the few public buildings in the town of Mexico which it can be necessary to describe, the Cathedral is one of the finest. It covers an immense space of ground, but to those who are accustomed to tlie beautiful spring of the arch, by which the old Gothic churches in Europe are distinguished, nothing MEXICO IN 1827. 23-3 can make up for the want of height, which, as I have ah'eady remarked, is an unavoidable defect in Mexican architecture. Riches have been lavislied upon the interior of the cathedral ; but there is nothing grand or imposing in the effect of the whole. The most remarkable feature is a balustrade, which occupies the centre of the church ; it is composed of a metal that was brought from China, through the Philippine Islands, (whence its name. Metal de China,) and which appears to be a composition of brass and silver, massive, but not handsome : it must however have cost a very large sum, as it was paid for by the weight in dollars. In the outer wall of the cathedral is fixed a circular stone, covered with hieroglyphical figures, by which the Aztecs used to designate the months of the year, and which is sup- posed to have formed a perpetual calendar. At a little distance from it, is a second stone, upon which the human sacrifices were performed, with which the great Temple of Mexico was so fiequently pol- luted : it is in a complete state of preservation, and the little canals for carrying off the blood, with the hollow in the middle, into which the piece of jasper was inserted, upon which the back of the victim rested, while his breast was laid open, and his pal- pitating heart submitted to the inspection of the High Priest, give one still, after the lapse of three centuries, a very lively idea of the whole of this disgusting operation. Whatever be the evils wliich the conquests of Spain have entailed upon the New 234 MEXICO IN 1827. World, the abolition of these horrible sacrifices may, at least, be recorded, as a benefit which she has con- ferred upon humanity in return. The Cathedral forms part of the northern side of the Plaza ]\Iayor, or great square. Another whole side is occupied by the Palace, which was formerly the residence of the Viceroy, but is now occupied by the Executive power, the Ministers, who have their offices there, and the principal courts of justice ; so that it presents, at all hours, a very busy scene. In the interior, the part most worthy of notice is the Botanical Garden, which was extensive as well as rich, until the Revolution, when a portion of it was converted into barracks for the body-guard of the Viceroys, who were taught, by the fate of Itur- rigaray, the necessity of having a strong military force constantly at hand. Some of the most valu- able productions were afterwards removed, by order of Madame Calleja, when Vice-Queen, to make room for some European vegetables, of which she was particularly fond ; but in 1 823, it was supposed that the garden still contained nearly three hundred species of plants little known in Europe. Of these I can attempt no description. I was, however, much struck witl\ a tree of considerable size called " El Arbol de las Manitos," the tree of the little hands, (Cheirostemon platanifolium,) bearing a beau- tiful red flower, the centre of which is in the form of a hand, with the fingers a little bent inwards. Only three trees of tlie kind exist in all Mexico ; MEXICO IN 1827. 235 two in the botanical garden, and one, (the mother plant,) in the mountains of Toliica, where it was accidentally discovered. The same mountains pro- duce a very singular species of Cactus, which has likewise been transplanted to the botanical garden. It looks exactly like an old man's head, as it is covered with long grey hair, which completely con- ceals the thorns : it is raised in boxes filled with pieces of the scoria, amongst which it was originally found. The garden is full of Humming Birds, which feed upon the flower of the Arbol de las Manitos, and, to the European visitor, add much to the no- velty of the scene. Like most Spanish towns, Mexico abounds in churches and convents, the interior of which is very splendid, particularly that of the Profesa, and the great convent of San Francisco. The College of Mines is likewise a magnificent building, the plan of which does honour to the taste of the architect, (the celebrated Tolsa ;) although, from some radical defect in the execution, the whole structure is now falling into ruins. It is supposed that the piles, upon which the foundations were laid, were not driven to the depth specified by tlie contract, in consequence of which the whole superstructure has given way, while the lower floor has sunk below the level of the street. It is quite melancholy to see magnificent rows of columns, windows, and doors, com})letely out of the perpendicular, with wafls and staircases crack- ing in every direction. Tlie roof, too, in some places, 236 MEXICO IN 1827. and the ceilings in almost all, are falling in, and a very few years will complete the destruction of this noble edifice, which ought to have served as a mo- nument of the wealth and magnificenceof the miners of New Spain, at whose expence it was erected. The collection of minerals, Vvhich the College con- tains, is rich, but in the very worst order possible ; as are also the models and instruments, though a little more attention seems to have been paid to them. They are under the care of a Professor, who gives lectures on chemistry and mineralogy, alter- nately, which were formerly very numerously at- tended. His auditors are now reduced to two or three solitary pupils, and the gloom of the vast apartments in the interior corresponds but too well with the dilapidated state of the building without. By far the most disagreeable part of Mexico, at the close of 1823, was its Lazzaroni population, which rendered the suburbs one continued scene of filth and misery. Twenty thousand of these Le- peros infested, at that time, the streets, exhibiting a picture of wretchedness to which no words can do justice. In addition to the extraordinary natural ugliness of the Indian race, particularly when ad- vanced in years, all that the most disgusting com- bination of dirt and rags could do to increase it was done. Dress they had none : a blanket full of holes for the man, and a tattered petticoat for the Avoman, formed the utmost extent of the attire of each ; and the display of tlieir persons, which was the natural MEXICO IN 1827. 237 consequence of this scarcity of raiment, to a stranger was really intolerable. Yet amongst these degraded creatures are found men endowed with natural powers, which, if properly directed, would soon ren- der their situation very different. The wax figures, with which Bullock's exhibition has rendered most people in London acquainted, are all made by the Leperos, with the rudest possible implements. Some of them are beautifully finished, particularly the images of the Virgin, many of which have a sweet expression of countenance, that must have been bor- rowed, originally, from some picture of Murillo's, for it is difficult to believe that the men by whom they are made could ever have imagined such a face. It is Humboldt, I believe, who remarks that it is to imitation that the powers of the copper-coloured race are confined : in this they certainly stand unri- valled, for while the Academy of San Carlos conti- nued open, (a most liberal institution, in which in- struction was given in drawing, and models, with every thing else required for the use of the students, provided at the public expence,) some of the most promising pupils were found amongst the least civi- lised of the Indian population. They seemed (to use the words of the Professor, who was at the head of the establishment,) to draw by instinct, and to copy whatever was put before them with the utmost facility ; but they had no perseverance, soon grew tired of such little restraint as the regulations of the Academy imposed, and disappeared, after a few les- 238 MEXICO IX 18-27. sons, to return no more. It remains to be seen whether any thing can be effected, by a better system of government, for a race of men composed of such heterogeneous elements. In 1824 they were no- thing but a public nuisance. It was hardly possible to pass through those parts of the towns, of which they Iiad possession ; and had it not been for the extreme purity of the air, the accumulation of filth before their doors must infallibly have produced a pestilence. The fear of wandering, by mistake, into their territories, which we did, once or twice, on our return from distant excursions, induced us latterly, to prefer the Tacubaya road to any other, because it led at once into the open country, and afforded an easy communication with the spacious avenues, which extend from the Chapiiltepec gate in different directions, for nearly two leagues round the town. Of the state of society in 1824 it is unnecessary here to speak, as we saw the Capital under very unfavourable circumstances. A civil war, carried on with unexampled cruelty on both sides, had de- solated the country for thirteen years ; and, although the contest with Spain was at length decided, the disturbances which had arisen in consequence of Iturbide's elevation to the throne, had terminated only a few months before our arrival. The form of government to be adopted was not definitively de- termined upon ; for, though the Provinces united in a cordial detestation of the yoke of the Mother- MEXICO IN 1827. 239 country, great differences of opinion prevailed with regard to the propriety of substituting a Central, or a Federal Republic for her authority. The compo- sition of the Executive was exceedingly singular : it consisted of Generals Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete, each of whom being employed in different commis- sions in the Interior, was replaced by a substitute, named by the Congress, who exercised the supreme authority, in conjunction with his colleagues, until the return of the Propietario, (the member originally named,) to the Capital. The substitutes in January 1824 were Messrs. Michelana and Dominguez, with General Guerrero, by whom the affairs of the country were for some time conducted. A government thus constituted, found it no easy task to curb the licen- tious spirit which had been generated by the civil war ; and there was, consequently, much wildness in the appearance of the troops, and no little insubor- dination on the part of the officers, of which the in- surrection of Lobato afforded a memorable example. Means were found to repress both this, and every similar attempt to resist the authority of the Su- preme Government ; but time was requisite in order to efface the demoralizing effects of the Revolution, and every thing was still in an incipient state. The streets of the Capital were unlighted ; the pave- ment in many places destroyed, and the principal houses shut up ; while the general appearance of the population bespoke poverty and distress. There was hardly a single foreign resident, with the ex- 210 MEXICO IN 1827. ception of two gentlemen, (Mr. Rupcrti, of the house of Green and Hartley, and Mr. Staples,) who had formed establishments in the city of Mexico, a few months before the arrival of the Commission. Trade was in a state of absolute stagnation ; for most of the old Spanish capitalists had withdrawn from the country, and no new channel of communication with Europe had been opened to supply their place. The Mines were in like manner abandoned, and all the numberless individuals who dejiended upon these two great sources of national prosperity for their subsistence, were reduced to absolute want. The eflfects of such a state of things were felt by every class of society, for a great depreciation in the value of agricultural produce was the consequence of the general distress ; and many landed proprie- tors, whose incomes, in better times, exceeded fifty and sixty thousand dollars, were compelled to reside entirely upon their estates, from the impossibility of keeping up an estabhshment in the Capital. The seeds of future prosperity were, however, in exist- ence, and it was evident that time and tranquillity were alone requisite in order to bring them to matu- rity. All our inquiries tended to give us a higher opinion of the resources of the country ; and next to Independence, the general, and most anxious wish of the population seemed to be for peace. I, there- fore, quitted the Capital, where my stay did not exceed three weeks, with a conviction that if it should be my fate to revisit it, I should find things MEXICO IN 1827. 241 in a very different state ; and it is not without satis- faction that I reflect upon the manner in which this belief was justified by subsequent events. Before I left Mexico, I had an opportunity of ascertaining the exact nature of the sensations ex- cited by an earthquake, and I cannot say that I found them sufl5ciently agreeable to entertain any wish for their frequent repetition. On the morn- ing of the 14th of January, 1824, we experienced a shock of the most unpleasant kind, which last- ed about six seconds : the motion was perpendi- cular, not horizontal, and the various noises by which it was accompanied, the cracking of the doors, the rattling of the windows, and the melan- choly howling of the dogs, who are usually the first to feel and to announce the approach of an earthquake, were well calculated to alarm even the least timid. The first shock, which occurred at four in the morning, was followed by a succession of others, which, though very slight, served to connect it with a second very severe one, which took place at sunrise. Seventeen other vibrations, so slight as to be almost imperceptible to foreigners, were counted during the next twenty-four hours, after which they ceased, nor have I since experienced any thing of the same kind. Earthquakes seldom do any serious injury in Mexico ; a church or two is some- times thrown a little out of the perpendicular, but beyond this their effects have not often extended. The past, indeed, is no security for the future, in a VOL. II. R M2 MEXICO IN 1827. country every part of which abounds in the traces of great volcanic eruptions ; but still, it enables you to meet an incipient earthquake with infinitely more composure than I at least should feel, under similar circumstances, at Caracas, or upon the ruiiis of Callao. The natives are both more sensible than strangers of the smaller shocks, and more alarmed by them ; while even animals give evident indica- tions of anxiety at their approach. Having given so detailed an account of the first journey of the Commission to the Capital, it will be unnecessary for me to state any thing with regard to my return to the Coast, except that, not being encumbered with a carriage, I was enabled to effect it in a very short time. I took with me a number of baggage-mules very lightly laden, and two good horses for myself, and my servant. My escort, which the unsettled state of the country rendered indispensable, was changed at each of the towns through which we passed, so that I proceeded with great rapidity. I took the La Puebla road, (the dis- turbances at that place having been entirely settled,) and made my first stage to the Venta de Cor- dovS,, about eight leagues from Mexico, having left that town very late in the day. The second day I reached La Puebla ; the thu'd, Ojo de Agua ; the fourth, Perote ; the fifth, Jalapa, where I passed the morning of the sixth day, and from whence I arrived at Veracruz in twenty-four hours, which included a few hours rest at Plan del Rio, and PuentS d^l MEXICO IN 1827. 343 Rey. I found the Thetis still at her anchorage, but was prevented from embarking by a violent Norte, which, with other circumstances, compelled me to remain at Veracruz for nearly a week. Fortunately, the season was healthy, and the firing from the Castle at an end ; a suspension of hostilities having taken place in consequence of botli parties being tired of such desultory warfare. I lodged at the house of Mr. Smith, (subsequently appointed His Majesty's Vice-Consul,) which was exactly opposite the great battery of San Juan de Uloa, and bore evidence to the precision with which the guns had been brought to bear upon the town, by the number of shots which had gone through it. It must have been a very uncomfortable residence, from what I saw of the effect produced by the opening of the batteries one evening, during my stay, which was sufficiently unpleasant to have induced me to seek other quarters immediately, had not the violence of a Norte without rendered it impossible to think of a change of abode. Nothing can be more melan- choly than the appearance of Veracruz during one of these winds. The air is filled with sand, and the sky darkened with clouds, while the waves are driven with such impetuosity upon the beach, that the whole line of coast is one sheet of foam. All communication between the shipping and the town is suspended, even when at anchor under the walls of the Castle, which are not half a mile from the pier-head. The rapidity with which R 2 244 MEXICO IN 1827. these gales come on is equal to their violence. A little ripple from the North first indicates their ap- proach, and if boats are out, or on shore, not an instant should then be lost in placing them in secu- rity. Five minutes afterwards I have seen the strength of a vi^hole boat's crew exerted in vain, in order to keep the head of the boat towards the sea : they sometimes succeeded in carrying it through the shoal water off Mocambo Point, but, as soon as they trusted to their oars, they were driven back again, and compelled to abandon the attempt. The only consolation in these cases is the reflection that, as long as the Norte lasts, there is no danger in the detention on shore. It purifies the atmosphere, and seems to destroy for the time the seeds of that terrible disorder, the " Vomito," which at other sea- sons proves so fatal to foreigners, upon the whole Eastern Coast of New Spain. This fever, which is very similar to the worst species of the Yellow Fever common throughout the West Indies, takes its name from one of its symptoms, the black vomit, {vomito prieto,) by which dissolution is usually pre- ceded. At Veracruz its cause has been sought in the local peculiarities of the situation, and there is little doubt tliat the exhalations from the marshes which surround the town, must have a tendency to increase the virulence of the disorder. But through- out the Gulph of Mexico, the Vomito has made its appearance wherever a number of Europeans have been assembled for the purposes of trade. At Tarn- MEXICO IN 1827. 245 pico, where it was little known, or, at least, little remarked, before 1821, it is now almost as prevalent as at Veracruz ; and New Orleans, to the extreme North of the Gulph, l)eing subject to it during the hot months of the year, it is probable that all the intervening line of Coast will be found exposed to this scourge, when the arrival of Foreigners shall call into activity the latent malaria, which appears not to act upon the Natives with similar violence. In them it produces Frios, (Agues,) from which many suffer during the summer months, and to which Europeans who have survived the Vomito are likewise liable ; while with others it leads to a bilious fever of so very virulent a nature, that unless the most powerful remedies are immediately em- ployed, there is but little time for medicine to act. In many recent cases, the disorder has proved fatal on the third day. Those who survive the fifth are almost out of danger, if they have sufficient stamina to carry them through their convalescence ; but there is such a total prostration of strength, that nature often fails at the moment when the most sanguine hopes of recovery are entertained. One peculiarity of this disease is the faciUty with which it is contracted. There have been instances of individuals who have not even passed through the town of Veracruz, but have got into a litter upon the beach, and taken the road to Jalapa within a quarter of an hour after leaving the ship, who have nevertheless carried witli them the seeds of the dis- •246 MEXICO IN 1827. order, and died of it upon the road. I should be indined however to think that these must have been persons of a particularly nervous disposition, whose very anxiety exposed them to additional danger, by creating great mental irritation, and with it a pre- disposition to fever. Precautions ought not indeed to be neglected, but the best are temperance, and abstinence from wine on the voyage out, so as to produce a good habit of body before arriving on the Coast. Any unnecessary stay at Veracruz, and too great an exposure to the sun, should also be avoided ; but in all other respects a predestinarian would have a much better chance of escaping, than a man over- anxious to hurry the preparations for his departure in a country where, without the exertion of some- thing far beyond any ordinary patience, very little can be etfected. On reaching the level of the En- cerro, it is supposed that all danger of infection ceases. It is at least certain that the Vomito never spreads amongst the inhabitants of Jalapa, or of the villages upon the higher parts of the road to that place, in which poorer travellers sometimes stop to die. As far as Plan del Rio its ravages are occa- sionally felt : it is probable that the disease is in- digenous there, as at Veracruz, for Humboldt denies that it can be communicated by infection, or con- tagion, and states that there is nothing in the air of a sick man's chamber that could render the miasmata, which might exhale from it, dangerous to those ai'ound him. Be this as it may, the rarefaction of MEXICO IN 1827. 247 the air in the higher regions exempts them from such visitations ; and although the disorder may prove fatal to the patient, it has never been known to extend to those who attend him. When once contracted, however, removal to a more healthy region is of no avail ; the Vomito runs its course with equal violence at Jalapa, and on the Coast, and the event depends entirely upon the strength of the sufferer. In general it is remarked that the most robust in appearance are the first to sink under the attack : women are less liable to it than men, and very young children have, I believe, never been known to be affected by it. There is a difference too between the inhabitants of the Southern parts of Spain, or Italy, and other Eu- ropeans ; the first being less frequently visited with the disorder, while very few natives of a Northein climate, if they become residents, for any time, at Veracruz, are known to escape it. Like the small- pox, it seldom visits the same person twice. Those who survive the first attack, particularly if it be a severe one, consider themselves as acclimates, and think no farther precautions necessary. The in- habitants of the Ta])le-land of Mexico are even more liable than Foreigners to be seized with the Vomito on visiting the Coast. This is probably owing to the suddenness of the transition : the rapidity of the descent from Perote allows no time for the body to become seasoned to the moist heat of the Tropics, so different from the dry and rarefied atmosphere of 248 MEXICO IN 1827. the higher country : all the pores are opened at once, and the general relaxation of the system necessarily renders them peculiarly susceptible of disease. Few of the muleteers of the Interior will descend lower than Jalapa during the hot months, (from the end of April to the beginning of October,) and when they do, it is lamentable to see the poor wretches, as I have done more than once, actually dying upon the road. When they can no longer sit their mules, they stretch themselves out under the first tree or shrub that will afford them protection from the sun, wrap up their heads in their blankets, and meet their fate with that composure, which, in every part of the New World, seems to be one of the characte- ristics of the Indian race. During this season, the Government couriers are changed at Jalapa, and no one, who is not compelled to do so by business of the most urgent nature, thinks of visiting the Tierra Caliente. Commerce is nearly at a stand ; and it is only upon the ap- proach of the autumnal equinox that business begins to be again transacted with any sort of activity. From the middle of October till the end of March, if the winter be not unusually mild, Veracruz, though never a safe, is at least not a very dangerous re- sidence. The Nortes, though inconvenient for the shipping, are infinitely preferable to the almost certain de- struction of the crew with which the fatigue of un- shipping the cargo of a merchant-vessel in summer MEXICO IN 1827. 249 would be attended; and while they continue, the unhealthy season is seldom known to commence. There have been instances, indeed, of deaths from Vomito in the months of November and December, but these are exceedingly rare, and would probably be found, if inquired into, to have proceeded from some incautious exposure, or excess, on the part of the sufferer.* In an ordinary year, I should have no objection to pass through Veracruz at any time between October and March : indeed, with proper precautions, I should think that it might be done without very great risk much later in the year. The persons most likely to suffer would be servants, and persons of that class, who often will not be induced to prepare themselves for landing beforehand, and, when on shore, are either excessively apprehensive, or unnecessarily imprudent. Amongst these the mortality is sometimes very great. In 1826, a num- ber of Frenchmen, mostly in inferior stations of life, who had come to Veracruz pour chercher fortune, were swept away at once ; the want of hospitals, which have not been properly re-organized since the Revolution, rendering the progress of the disease doubly rapid. In 1825, a terrible instance of the * In November 1826, Mr. Oxley, a gentleman who had been travelling for some time in Mexico on the account of some great Manchester houses, died at Veracruz of the Vomito, after having purposely delayed his departure from the Capital from July to October, in order to select the most favourable time for it. 2150 MEXICO IN 1827. effects of the climate in cases where exposure to the sun is unavoidable, occurred. In consequence of some delay in the completion of the Real del Monte steam-engines, the expedition, which was entrusted with the charge ^of conveying them up the country, under the orders of Captain Colquhoun, did not reach Veracruz until the commencement of the sick- ly season ; and out of this small party fifteen men were buried near the spot where the disembarkation of the machinery was effected. The attempt to remove it inland was of course abandoned, until the commencement of the winter, but it is grievous to reflect upon the waste of life which was occasioned by a little miscalculation with regard to the time on this side of the Atlantic. Of the mode of treatment adopted in cases of Vomito at Veracruz I am wholly ignorant. The natives do not willingly resort to the violent mea- sures which are common in the West Indies, and which, where the patient is sufficiently strong to support them, undoubtedly cut short the disease at once. They usually employ medicines of a less decided character, such as olive oil, and infusions of various kinds, which if not very effective as reme- dies, at least do no harm.* In such cases, the pa- * ]\Ir. Carrington, who came out to ]Mexico in April 1826, and afterwards resided for nearly a year with me, got over the Vomito at Jalapa, by u negative treatment of this sort. He arrived there in a state of delirium, having been seized with the disorder upon the road, and was immediately forced to take MEXICO IN 1827. 251 tient, if he survives, is indebted for his recovery to the goodness of his own constitution. This, at least, is the language of our English physicians, though I have seen the copious bleedings, and still more copious use of calomel, which our sailors endure at Jamaica, prove fatal at once, when tried upon the less robust constitution of a Spaniard. No clever medical man has yet practised at Veracruz. An American doctor, who was very successful there in the early part of 1826, was carried off by the disease himself at the end of the season ; and no good account has been given, either by him, or any one else, of the change which the late influx of foreigners has pro- duced in the proportion of the number of deaths to that of the persons attacked by the fever, which Humboldt states, in the best of the Veracruz hos- pitals, (in 1804,) not to have exceeded sixteen in the hundred. The Vomito has become, I believe, much more generally fatal, since natives from so many of the Northern parts of Europe have been exposed to its action : I know, however, some in- stances of persons who have escaped, and whose general health has been even improved by the dan- gerous crisis which they have undergone.* a large tumbler of oil and lemon-juice, by the master of the inn. Youth, (he was only nineteen,) and a good habit of body, probably contributed still more effectually to save him, which they did after a severe struggle. * Amongst the most remarkable of these instances I might mention Don Rafael Beraza, who is employed as King's Mes- 252 MEXICO IN 1827. Neitlier the natives of Veracruz, nor the black population, are subject to the Vomito. By natives, I do not mean the inhabitants of the whole Pro- vince, (for those on the Slope of the Cordillera dread a journey to the Coast as much as those who descend at once from the Table-land,) but indivi- duals born in the town of Veracruz, or in the Tierra Caliente immediately around it. These seem to enjoy a special exemption from the dangers of the climate, and, strange as it may appear, they do not lose it even if they are removed at an early age from their native shore, and pass several successive years in countries, the natives of which cannot sustain the heat of the Tropics without imminent danger. I am myself acquainted with one young man, of a most respectable Veracruz family, who, after having been sent to receive his education at Paris, Ham- burg, and Madrid, returned to Veracruz at the very worst period of the sickly season of 1821, (which was remarkably violent,) after an al)sence of ten years, and remained there, without the shghtest ap- prehension of danger, for nearly six weeks. Whether the rule is a general one, or whether his was an exception, due, perhaps, to the very free- dom from anxiety, which the conviction of his own safety produced, is a question well worthy of inves- senger to the Mission in Mexico, and who, having survived the first attack, now performs the journey to Veracruz on horse- back with his dispatches, once or twice a month, in the very worst seasons, without apprehension or inconvenience. MEXICO IN 1827. 253 tigation : the general belief of the country is de- cidedly in favour of the first supposition. I have been led into details which belong of right to a later period than that comprehended in this Section, by my wish to state connectedly all the facts with which I am acquainted relative to a dis- order, the nature of which, as our commercial inter- course with Mexico becomes more extensive, it will be of infinite importance to ascertain. It is to be hoped that the attention of some com- petent person will soon be drawn to the subject ; for although it is hardly to be expected that art can devise a remedy for a disease, the seeds of which seem to lie in the action of the sun upon the mass of rank vegetation, which, wherever there is water, a Tropical climate is sure to engender ; still, there is little doubt that its effects upon the human frame will be less dangerous, in proportion as they are better understood. Great indeed will be the benefit conferred upon mankind, by him to whom the merit of even a moderately efficacious treatment of the Vomito is first due. Most fortunately, its ravages are confined exclvisively to the land, few or none of the ships, in which common precautions are taken, and the men not unnecessarily exposed, having suffered from the fever. This has been par- ticularly remarked of our men of war, many of which have remained at anchor off Veracruz, on different occasions, five or six weeks, and yet have left it with a clean bill of health. In vessels where 254 MEXICO IN 1827. solitary cases of Vomito have occurred, it has not spread on board, unless where several of the men have been exposed to the action of similar exciting causes, in which case the vessel itself at last be- comes a foyer, or receptacle, of those miasmata, by which the disorder is supposed to be propagated. The whole crew is then exposed to the utmost danger; but such instances are exceedingly rare, and with the attention that is now paid to clean- liness and ventilation, they may be expected rather to diminish, than to increase. The Thetis buried only one man during the seven weeks which she passed at the anchorage of Sacrificios, and he died of a disease in the heart. On the 5th of February, 1824, I returned on board, and we sailed for England the same morning. In crossing the Gulph we met with a severe Norther, which, however, was much more disagreeable in its effects, than while it actually lasted, as it threw the whole volume of water into such a commotion that we had not a quiet moment afterwards for several days. I still recollect with pleasure the relief which we experienced, after passing five whole days with our quarter-boats alternately under water, as we glided past the Morro, and entered the magnificent harbour of the Havana, where there was neither a ripple to be seen on the surface, nor the slightest motion to be felt in the ship. The transition to such a perfectly quiescent state, to a young sailor MEXICO IN 1827. 255 like myself, was inexpressibly delightful, nor have three subsequent voyages made me forget it. We were ten days in reaching the Havana from Veracruz, and ten more in the Island, notwithstand- ing which we anchored within the Plymouth Break- water on the 17th of March, after a passage of twenty- one days. Few ships have performed the voyage in so short a time. We were only thirty-one days at sea be- tween Veracruz and Devonport. 256 MEXICO IN 1B27. SECTION III. SECOND VISIT TO MEXICO IN 1825. — STATE OF LA PUEBLA. — DESCRIPTION OF HUEHUETOCA, AND TEZCUCO. — KOUTE TO CUAUTLA AMIL- PAS. I PASSED the whole of the Summer and Autumn of 1824 in England, but in December I received orders to prepare immediately for my return to Mexico, where I had the honour of being entrusted, subsequently, in conjunction with Mr. Morier, with the negotiation of the Treaty, which it was the in- tention of His Majesty's Government to conclude with New Spain, in common with the other South American States. On the 8th of January, 1825, I left London, and on the 18th, after being detained some days at Devonport by contrary winds, we embarked on board His Majesty's ship Egeria, commanded by Captain Roberts, and commenced, for the second time, a voyage, which a few years will, I suppose. MEXICO IN 1827. 257 render so ordinary a transaction that it will be little more thought of than the passage from Dover to Calais. Our party was an uncomfortably large one, considering the size of the vessel, as, in addition to Mrs. Ward, Mr. Ball, and Dr. Wilson, who, with myself, formed the Mexican passengers, there were Colonel Campbell and two other gentlemen belong- ing to the Mission in Columbia, whom the Egeria was directed to land at Carthagena, on their way to Bogota. It was only by dint of great good hu- mour, and kindness on the part of Captain Roberts, and a spirit of mutual accommodation amongst all the other members of the party, that we were enabled to stow ourselves away at all, and when we got into the warmer latitudes, we suffered not a little from the effects of being so crowded. We had some very bad weather on first sailing, but left it behind us, with the Bay of Biscay, and reached Madeira on the eighth morning after our departure from Devonport. There we remained only twenty-four hours. From Funchal we had a run of twenty-one days to Barbadoes, where there is little novelty, or beauty to describe ; for although the grove of Cocoa-nuts on the beach is rather pic- turesque, the effect is destroyed, on approaching the town, by the intermixture of the very worst style of English houses, with the productions of a climate, to which they are particularly ill adapted. Nothing can be more uncomfortable, on a sultry day, than the small boarded rooms, sash windows, and narrow VOL. II. s 258 MEXICO IN 1827. passages, into which an abode of this kind is divided; yet both at Gibraltar, and in the West Indies, we seem to have preferred this system of wholesale archi- tectm-al transplantation to the adoption of the corri- dors and verandas of our French and Spanish neigh- bom^s. In the country residences of the Planters, more taste is shown, and a better idea of comfort entertained ; but in the town, there is nothing but the black population, and a glowing sky, to denote that one is separated from England by 37 degrees of latitude, and some thousand miles of sea. Five days' sail carried us from Barbadoes to Car- thagena, the hottest, dullest, dryest, and most dreary place that I have almost ever seen. Yet, it is said not to be unhealthy, and, though much frequented by Foreigners, there have hitherto been but few instances of the Vomito, so prevalent at Veracruz. The disorder which proved so fatal to the Scylla, in 1826, (she lost at Carthagena her cap- tain, two-thirds of the officers, and almost all the crew,) is supposed to have originated on board, as it has been ascertained that there was no sick- ness in the town at the time. This exemption from disease is probably owing to the extreme dry- ness of the atmosphere, as compared with the Mex- ican coast. When we were at Carthagena, it was said not to have rained for two whole years, and the marshes in the vicinity of the town were nearly dry. Colonel Campbell took leave of us here to commence his voyage up the Magdalena. From his MEXICO IN 1827. 259 description of the heat, the privations, and the annoyances from insects of all kinds, which must be endured during the six weeks' confinement on board one of the long river-boats, in which the voyage to Honda is performed, before you commence the ascent to Bogota, it seems evident that a new sera in Diplomacy must be dated from the opening of our communications with the New World. It was, hitherto, thought rather an easy, luxurious sort of metier ; but a Diplomatist in America requires stamina as well as head, and must have a talent for undergoing a good deal of very rough work, as well as for managing a delicate negotiation. Colonel Campbell was blessed with a frame of iron, and performed, for the second time, in perfect safety, what many would have found an arduous task ; but one of the gentlemen who accompanied him, (Mr. Wood,) has since died a victim to the climate, on a journey to Quito, from Giiyaquil, at which place he resided as Consul for about a year. From Carthagena we made no land until we saw the Island of Pines, (off the coast of Cuba,) Captain Roberts having kept to the Southward of the Pedro shoals in order to avoid Port Royal. Few ships sailing under Admiralty Orders like coming too near to an Admiral's Flag, particularly on a rich and unhealthy station, where there is a possibility of being detained, and a certainty of being obliged to pay tithes upon whatever freight may be procured for Europe. On the 5th of March we made Cape s 2 260 MEXICO IX 1827. San Antonio, from which point there are two modes of steering for Veracruz. ^J'he first is to run up as high as 24 North latitude, bv which means all the shoals and rocks that we are yet acquainted with, between the Island of Cuba and the Main- land, are left to the Southward ; and the second, to keep within the shoals, and close alonj^ shore, pass- ing between the Bank of Sisal and the town, with the coast of Yucatan constantly in view, from about 88 to near 91 of West longitude. In steering the first course, it requires a slant of wind from the North to reach \^eracruz, and this it would be in vain to look for between the months of May and October ; but at all other times, in as far as a landsman may presume to give an opinion upon such a subject, I should thitik it by far the safest line to take, on account of the extreme shallowness of the water near the coast of Yucatan, and the very inaccurate manner in which the reefs between Campeche and Veracruz are laid down. On the 6th of March, (in West longitude 88,) we had soundings in 2f fathoms, and on the night of the 8th, we were very near terminating our voyage at some distance from the })lace of our original destination. We had lost sight of land for upwards of twenty-four hours, .and were running down, in the direction of Vera- cruz, with a beauti ul breeze of about eight knots, when one of the leadsmen, whom Captain Roberts had taken the precaution of keeping in the chains, with orders to continue soundings every quarter of an MEXICO IN 1827. 261 hour, suddenly obtained soundings in eight fathoms ; the next cast of the lead gave seven fathoms ; the third six ; and although all hands were turned up to put the ship about, it she had not obeyed the helm instantly, we should none of us, in all probability, ever have seen land again. There was a good deal of sea running, and the Egeria was an old vessel, so that if she had struck, she must have gone to pieces. It has been since ascertained that there is only one fathom of water upon the centre of this dangerous shoal, with which the Spaniards them- selves were long unacquainted. I was told at Vera- cruz that its discovery was supposed to account for the disappearance of a number of small vessels en- gaged in the Campeche Trade, which had been lost, without any thing being ever heard of them after- wards. It lies in Latitude 19-35, Longitude 92.32, Las Areas, (as laid down in our charts,) bearing North 36.15, East 40 miles. On the 11th of March we reached Veracruz with- out any farther interruption. The news of the pro- jected Treaty had been received two days before, by the Jamaica Mail, and nothing, certainly, could exceed the enthusiasm excited in every part of the country by the intelligence of a resolution on the part of His Majesty's Government, which was natu- rally regarded as the definitive recognition of Mexi- can Independence. From Veracruz to the Capital, but one feeling was displayed ; and in every village through which we passed, we received proofs of its 262 MEXICO IN 1827. sincerity ; for the wishes of the Government were seconded by the inhabitants, who vied with each other in loading us with marks of attention and kindness. From the moment that we approached the shores of Veracruz, an astonishing difference became visible in the state and appearance of every thing around us. The Castle was, indeed, still held by a Spanish garrison, and the harbour closed, in consequence, to Foreign vessels, but the firing had long ceased, the siege being converted into a blockade, in which a number of Mexican schooners and gun-boats were employed, while the Castle was occasionally supplied with fresh provisions by the Spanish flotilla from the Havana. The Island of Sacrificios, where we again anchored, and which I had left, a year before, a barren and desolate spot, upon which Sir John Phillimore used to turn out the bullocks bought for his ship's company, had been converted into a re- gular fortification, under which the Mexican gun- boats sought protection on the approach of the Spanish fleet. Mocambo too had assumed a for- midable appearance. In both places the Independent flag was flying, and at the anchorage ground there were more merchant vessels of different countries assembled, than had entered the Ports of Mexico in the whole year of 1823. On the morning of our landing, nothing could be prettier than this scene, the ships being all dressed in their colours, and the MEXICO IN 1827. 26S batteries from the shore and the Island answerino; each other with alternate guns, as we rowed in to the pier-head, where we were received by the Go- vernor of Veracruz, General Rincon, and all his Staff. General Victoria had been summoned from this post some months before, in order to assume the more arduous situation of President. A small portion of the population of the town had returned to it since the cessation of hostilities with the Castle, but its appearance was still melan- choly and desolate ; very few of the houses of the more wealthy inhabitants being as yet occupied. The weather began to be sultry, but the town was healthy, which was a fortunate circumstance for us, as we were forced to remain there two whole days, before we could get our baggage disembarked, and complete our preparations for commencing our journey to the Capital. I had taken every precaution, however, to have things made up into proper sizes for carriage by mules, before we left England ; and by this means, as we had no large chests to cut up, and their con- tents to distribute into two or three others, (which was the case, in more than one instance, on our first voyage,) we were enabled to get into marching order in less time than could have been expected fi'om the largeness of the party, and the quantity of baggage which the prospect of a long residence had ren- dered necessary. S64 MEXICO IN 1827. Mrs. Ward performed the journey in a litter, a description of which the accompanying sketch will render unnecessary. It is by no means an uncomfortable conveyance in a wild country, particularly where riding, or the violent motion of a carriage over roads intersected by gullies, and covered with fragments of rock, must have proved dangerous ; as in Mrs. Ward's case, who was at that time so near her first confinement, that she was hardly expected to reach the capital in safety. All the rest of the party rode. At the Manaiitial, we were met by an oflBcer, whom General Barragan, the Governor of the State of Veracruz, had sent to receive us, with a whole cargo of wine, porter, and refreshments of every kind. At Puente del Rey, where we slept the first night, we found a most abundant supper in waiting, and lodgings pre- pared for us in the only brick house in the place, which had been built since my first visit. At Plan MEXICO IN 1827. 265 del Rio similar attentions were shown ; and at Jalapa, where we were most luxuriously lodged in the house of Madame Santa Ana, we were welcomed by General Barragan himself, and his very pleasing- wife, with a kindness and hospitality such as I have seldom seen equalled. We remained one day at Jalapa, in order to be present at a dinner given by General Barragan, at which we met all the Authorities, both civil and military, and almost every person of respectability, in or near the town. Most of those present had already called upon us in the course of the morning, during the whole of which the house in which we lodged had been literally crowded with visitors. Nothing could be more pleasing to an Englishman than the feelings evinced upon this occasion. Toasts were given, and verses recited in commemoration of the connexion about to be established between the two countries ; and although many of the golden visions which were then entertained, have not yet been realised, enough has been gained by Mexico, and by England, to demonstrate the advantages which both may derive from this connexion, in pro- portion as each becomes better acquainted with the wants and capabilities of the other. The scene altogether was one of general — of na- tional excitement ; and I shall always look back to it with pleasure, as one most gratifying to me, because most honourable to my country. On the 18th we left Jalapa, still the guests of ^66 MEXICO IN 1827. the State of Veracruz, to whose hospitality we were indebted for excellent lodgings both at Las Vigas, and at Tepeyagiialco, with which we were provided by orders of the Governor. At Nopaluca, where we slept on the 20th, we found that similar pre- cautions had been taken by the authorities of La Puebla, in whose territories we then were ; and when we reached the Capital of that State, on the 2 1st, after a most excellent dinner, which we found waiting for us on the road at Aniozoque, we were lodged by the Governor, Don Jos6 Maria Calderon, in his own house, where, notwithstanding the large- ness of our party, he insisted upon accommodating us all. La Puebla was formerly a town inferior only to the Capital in extent and population. It contains at present about 50,000 inhabitants, and is an im- portant place, as being the seat both of the richest Bishoprick in the country, and of the most extensive manufactures of cotton, earthenware, and wool. The streets, like those of Mexico, are rectangular, spa- cious, and airy. The houses low, but roomy, and the apartments mostly paved with porcelain, and adorned with Fresco paintings on the stuccoed walls. The country around is rich, but naked, being totally devoid of trees, with the exception of the Pinal, a pine forest, (as the name implies,) which extends from within a league and a half of Nopaluca, to about five leagues from the gates of La Puebla, where cultivation re-commences. The whole dis- MEXICO IN 1827. 267 tance is about twelve leagues. The road through the Pinal is extremely bad, and dangerous in un- settled times, the forest being the favourite haunt of banditti, who sometimes assemble there in con- siderable numbers for a coup de main ; but our es- cort was too strong for us to feel any apprehensions of an attack. We remained during the whole of the 221nd at La Puebla, as the Governor, whose hospitality and friendly disposition towards every Englishman of respectability who visits the town, I have ever found the same, would not hear of our passing a shorter time with him, than we had done at JalajDa with General Barragan. The delay afforded us an oppor- tunity of seeing the Cathedral, a magnificent build- ing, in the construction of which the Angels them- selves are said to have taken a very active part. It is regarded by the Indians, and by a large propor- tion of the female Spanish population, as a well- authenticated fact, that during the time that the walls of the edifice were constructing, two messengers from heaven descended every night, and added to their height exactly as much as had been raised, by the united efforts of the labourers, during the day. With such assistance the work advanced at a pro- digious rate, and was brought to a conclusion in a much shorter space of time than could have been effected by human exertions alone. It is in grateful commemoration of this event that the name of the town, "La Puebla de los Angeles," was assumed ; and 268 MEXICO IN 1827. as all the details of it are recorded with singular care in the convents, which have since been built upon this favoured spot, there is little danger of their not being handed down to posterity, in all the purity in which they are now preserved. But whether of divine or human origin, the Ca- thedral is a very fine building, and the riches of the interior are worthy of a country that has produced, during the last two centuries, nearly two-thirds of the whole of the silver raised annually in the world. The lofty candlesticks, the balustrade, the lamps, and all the ornaments of the principal altar, are of massive silver ; and the effect produced by such magnificence, in conjunction with the beauty of the columns of native marble by which the roof is sup- ported, is very striking. We were not, however^ allowed to admire them long in peace, for, notwith- standing the presence of Madame Calderon, and two or three aides-de-camp of the Governor, the curiosity excited by the first appearance of an English woman w^as so ungovernable, that the great market-place, through which the carriage had passed, transferred in a moment by far the largest portion of its inmates to the Cathedral, where the crowd soon became so great, that, although no incivility was intended, it was quite impossible for us to remain. La Puebla contained, at that time, a Lazzaroni population nearly as numerous as that of the Capital ; a naked and offensive race, whom you cannot approach without pollution, or even behold without disgust. MEXICO IX 1827. 269 I do not know any thing in nature more hideous than an old Indian woman, with all the deformities of her person displayed, as they usually are, by a dress which hardly covers a tenth part of her body ; and in La Puebla, in consequence of the numerous con- vents in which alms were distributed, these objects were particularly numerous. We were too happy to escape by a different door from that by which we had entered, and to take refuge in the carriage. We left La Puebla on the 2 2d of March, and slept at San Martin, taking the road through Cho- lula to that place, in order to obtain a better view of the old Mexican Teocalli, or Pyramid, of which Humboldt s work contains so detailed a description. The base of this Pyramid comprises a square of about 1773 feet ; the height is 54 metres, or 177 feet. It is truncated, and, on the spacious platform in which it terminates, the Conquerors have erected a Chapel, as if to mark the substitution of another creed, and another race, for the nation by whose united exertions this stupendous monument must have been raised. The whole mass is formed of alternate layers of unburnt bricks and clay, and is now overgrown with thick shrubs, amongst which clouds of Tortolas, (a small wood pigeon,) are found. Its structure is said by Baron Humboldt to present a curious analogy with that of the Temple of Belus at Babylon, and of the Pyramids of Egypt. Its object was undoubtedly reHgious, but as its construction is ascribed to the Toltecs, a nation 270 MEXICO IN 1827. which preceded the Aztecs in their emigration to- wards the South, the exact nature of the rites to which it was dedicated can only be conjectured. It may have served for the performance of human sacrifices in the sight of the assembled tribe ; or as a place of defence in the event of an unexpected attack : — perhaps the two objects were combined, for, in the siege of Mexico, the most obstinate re- sistance was made in the vicinity of the great tem- ple, (which resem.bled in form, though not in size, the Teocallis of Cholula and Teotihuacan,) from the summit of which the priests are said to have encouraged the warriors by whom the great stair- case and platform were defended. The view from the Pyramid of Choiiila, embraces the three great Volcanoes, and the Malinche, with a finely cultivated country covering the interven- ing space. The town of Cholula lies immediately below the platform, reduced, like the rival State of Tlascala, which is separated from it by the Malinche, to a mere shadow of its former greatness ; but still indicating, by the size of its Plaza, the extent of ground which the city formerly covered. The fer- tility of the plain around is very great, as from the vicinity of the two great mountains Popocatepetl, and Istaccihuatl, a constant supply of water for irri- gation can be obtained : it abounds in Haciendas de Trigo, (Corn estates,) many of which, in good years, are said to produce ^Vheat in the proportion of eighty to one to the seed. This fertility termi- MEXICO IN 1827. 271 nates a little beyond San Martin, where the passage of the mountains, that separate La Puebla from Mexico, commences. Cortes, on his march towards Mexico, opened a road for his army between the two mountains, but this has long been abandoned, and the line of com- munication now passes to the East of Istaccihuatl, where, though the ground is very rugged, and in one part, (the Barranca de Juanes,) attains the height of 10,486 feet, carriages are nevertheless able to pass. From San Martin, which is seven leagues from La Puebla by the direct road, to the Venta de Tesmelucos, (about three leagues,) the ascent is very gentle, amounting only to 557 feet : but in the next four leagues, which extend to Rio Frio, and the Barranca de Juanes, there is a difference of 2,219 feet. From the summit of the Barranca to the Valley of Tenochti'tlan, or Mexico, there is a gradual de- scent, which becomes almost imperceptible on reach- ing the Venta de Chalco, where Humboldt found the elevation to be exactly the same as that of San Martin on the opposite side of the range, viz. 7,711 feet. Nothing can be finer than the first view of the Valley of Mexico as it bursts upon you from a little above the Venta de Cordova, with all its lakes, rocks, villages, and Haciendas, scattered around the Capital in one vast basin. It is impossible not to be struck with so magnificent a scene. 272 MEXICO IN 1827. We had been detained too long in crossing the mountains, to attempt to reach Mexico on the even- ing of the 24th, and we accordingly took up our quarters for the night at the Hacienda de la Buena Vista, which, unlike many other Haciendas with names of equal promise, we found fully deserving of its appellation, from the beauty of its situation. It is just far enough within the range of mountains to render their outline distinctly visible, while it is sufficiently elevated above the valley to give the eye a very extensive range. All the best rooms of tlie house were, as usual, placed at our disposal ; so that up to the last moment of our journey there was no dirninuticn of those attentions, of which we had been the object from its commencement. In recording them I cannot be suspected of vanity, for they were not shown to me as an individual, but were intended to mark the feelings which the Mex- icans, in general, entertain towards the country which I had the honour of representing ; and most sincerely do I hope that those feelings may long remain unchanged. On the morning of the 25th of March, we reached the Capital. We were met about two leagues from the gates by a number of English residents, not one of whom, with the exception of Mr. Ruperti, was established in the country at the time of my first visit, and their presence was alone sufficient to indicate the improvements which I was called upon, at almost every step, to remark. Not a house MEXICO IN 1827. 273 was unoccupied, and the busy activity of the streets formed an agreeable contrast to their melancholy aspect in January 1824. Indeed, from the moment that I landed, I had been struck with the progress which, in one year, the country had made. There was everywhere an appearance of more settled habits, more subordi- nation amongst the military, and more respect for the civil authorities ; while the long files of mules which we continually passed on their way from the Coast to the Capital, afforded evident proofs of an increase of activity in trade. In the town of Mex- ico it was already difficult to procure a tolerable house, without paying a Traspaso,* the amount of which competition had rendered enormous. In good situations I have known eight, ten, twelve, and even twenty thousand dollars paid, in order to obtain possession of nothing but bare walls and windows, with the probability of being obliged to lay out half as much more in order to make the house secure and habitable. In 1823, one fifth part of the sum would have been sufficient. The distance from Rio Frio to the Venta de Cor- dova is five leagues ; from thence to the Capital eight. The Hacienda of Buena Vista lies about half a league out of the direct road. The whole distance from La Puebla to Mexico may be taken * A Traspaso is a fine paid by the tenant, for which he is to receive a compensation on giving up the house, not from the proprietor, but from the person who succeeds himself. VOL. II. T 274 MEXICO IN 1827. at 27 leagues, or 70 English miles. By sleeping at Rio Frio, the journey may be divided into two fatiguing days ; but without a change of mules at the Venta de Cordova it is not easy to accomplish it. On horseback, the time employed depends entirely upon the number of relays. In January 1826, on Mr. Morier's return from England with the second Treaty, circumstances occurred which made me particularly desirous to see him before his arrival in the Capital ; and in order to accomplish this with the least possible loss of time, I stationed ray own horses at proper dis- tances upon the road. The first was placed at Ista- paluca, the second at Rio Frio, and the third at San Martin, while a fourth carried me the seven leagues from San Cosme to Istapaluca. I left the gates of Mexico at half past seven o'clock, and reached General Calderon's house in La Puebla at a quarter past three, having accomplished the jour- ney, without difficulty, in eight hours and a quarter, although, from the nature of the ground, it was not supposed that the distance could be performed in so short a time. I remained at La Puebla three days, ]\Ir. Morier's arrival there having been imex- pectedly delayed, and returned on the fourth to Mexico, in rather less time than before, being not quite eight hours upon the road. During my short stay at La Puebla in 1826, I had an opportunity of observing the improvements which General Calderon's exertions had effected in the MEXICO IN 1827. 275 appearance of the population. The State Congress had been induced by him to pass a law, by which every Lepero found naked or begging in the streets was condemned to labour at the works, which were undertaken by the Government for the improvement of the town, for the term of one month, at the end of which he was set at liberty, and provided with a decent dress, with the offer of employment if he chose to work, and the certainty of a double penalty if he relapsed into his former habits. This law, which was most rigorously enforced at first, produced a wonderful effect ; and, as it was accompanied by the introduction of an excellent night police, it soon freed La Puebla from the swarms of vagrants, by which it had been previously infested ; and substituted order and decency for the disgusting licence, which prevailed amongst the lower classes at the period of my first and second visits. I was present at the meeting of the State Legis- lature of La Puebla, which, though on a small scale, was conducted with all the formality that accom- panies the opening of the Sessions of the General Congress in the Capital. In both, a general exipost of the state of affairs is made ; and this in the States, may be considered as the first step towards a regular system of statistics ; for the Governor s report em- braces all the details of the new territorial division, and enumerates the Towns, Pueblos, and Ranchos, comprehended in the territory, with an estimate T 2 276 MEXICO IN 1827. of their poj)ulation and resources. I was much pleased with the eagerness with which many ques- tions of local importance were discussed at General Calderon's table, where I met most of the members of Congress on the day that the sessions were opened. They were chiefly landed proprietors ; not, perhaps, of very refined education, (for, under the guardianship of Spain, there were few Mexicans to whom that advantage was not denied,) but of much simplicity of manners, and possessing a prac- tical knowledge of the evils, by the removal of which their own interests could be best promoted. The most important question that has yet cOme before the Legislature of La Puebla, has been the claims of the Church for the arrears of interest due on money lent on mortgage, to the landed proprie- tors of the State, before the Revolution, which they have been prevented from paying by the general ruin of their estates during the civil war. From the great influence of the Church in La Puebla, and the determination which it at first evinced to insist upon the full extent of its dues, the discussion was attended with considerable difficulty ; nor would it have been found easy to reconcile such opposite interests, had not the apprehension of an appeal to the Supreme Congress, on the part of the land- holders, induced the clergy to consent to a compo- sition, by which something is sacrificed by both parties, and thus the common loss pretty equally MEXICO IN 1827. 277 borne by each. The necessity of such a concession on the part of tlie clergy, in a town where the great revenues of the Cathedral Chapter, and the personal influence of the Bishop unite in maintaining their power over the minds of the lower orders, may be regarded as no slight proof of the progress which Mexico has made towards emancipation from that thraldom, in which the Inquisition, and the splen- dour of the ecclesiastical establishments, combined to hold the country. Don Antonio Perez, the pre- sent Bishop of La Puebla, possesses all the qualities best calculated to render him the prop and support, in his own Diocese, of that system, of which he is now almost the sole representative in New Spain. With the most polished manners, and the most dig- nified address, he has considerable oi'atorical powers ; and he adds to these merits that of dispensing with great liberality the large revenues of his See. He is a Creole too, (the first ever raised by the Court of Madrid to the episcopal dignity ;) and all these advantages have given him an influence, such as no Spaniard could have hoped to exercise. In what- ever country his lot had been cast, he must have been a distinguished man, for he possesses that power of accommodating himself to circumstances, which is, perhaps, the surest road to preferment, when accompanied by sufficient penetration to seize the happy moment for a change. In Spain he was an active member of the Cortes of Cadiz ; and yet, 278 MEXICO IN 1827. on the King's return in 1814, his name was at the head of the Persas, or party, which petitioned his Majesty for the immediate dissolution of that assem- hly. Raised in 1815 to the Bishopric of La Puebla, he addressed, upon his arrival, a Pastoral to the people of his Diocese, exhorting them to beware of the dangerous and heretical tendency of the Spa- nish Constitution ; and yet, on the second Procla- mation of that Constitution, in 1820, he contrived to conciliate, in a second Pastoral, all that he had then said of its defects, with the panegyric which it became expedient to pronounce upon its advantages. I know few better models of political ingenuity than this curious paper, which Bustamante has given, at length, in his Cuadro Historico. It was headed by the text — " There is a time to speak, and there is a time to be silent," (Eccl. iii. v. 7,) and it must be admitted that in a country still in- volved in a great political struggle, where caution v/as consequently necessary in the choice of a subject, and much tact required in the mode of treating it, a happier selection could not easily have been made. The State of La Puebla is divided into twenty-five Partidos, or districts, containing, in all, according to a Census taken after the great Epidemy in 1825, a population of 584,358 souls; or 681,751, if one sixth be added to the registered amount for unavoid- able errors in the returns. Tlic names of all the Partidos, the situation of MEXICO IN 1827. 279 which is at all correctly ascertained, will be found in the map. The principal are Atlixco, which has a population of 31,657 inhabitants, and is celebrated both for its Corn lands, and for the famous Ahuahuete, or Cy- press, {Cupressus disticha,) which stands near the town. It is of the same kind as those of Chapul- tepee, but much exceeds them in size, being seventy- three feet in girth. The district of Guauchinango has 26,086 inhabitants ; Ometepec, 25,151 ; La Puebla, 34,756; Tepeaca, 43,713; Tehuacan de las Granadas, 43,248 ; Hapa, 38,383 ; and Zacat- lan, 47,129. AU produce in great abundance the fruits either of Tierra Calienie^ (for the territory of the State extends beyond the Western ridge of the Sierra Madre, down to the shores of the Pacific,) or those common to the rest of the Table-land. Thus cotton, rice, coffee, sugar, and a little cochineal, (near the confines of Oaxaca,) are grown in common with wheat, barley, maize, chile, and frijoles, as well as the fruits of almost every chmate. With these the market of La Puebla is supplied in the greatest abundance ; but agriculture is, in general, in a very depressed state, there being no mines to create a home market. The exportation of wheat, however, to Veracruz and Oaxaca, is stated in the Governor's report to be considerable, and is likely to increase. The Revenue of the State, in the whole year ending January 1826, was 633,025 Dollars, and the expences, (including all the Government 280 MEXICO IN 1827. charges, both legislative and executive, as well as the contingent due to the Federation, which has been paid with great punctuality,) 629,070 Dollars ; so that a balance of 4,555 Dollars was left in favour of the State, at the end of the first twelve months, in which the experiment of self-government had been tried. - The capital can hardly expect, under the present system of free intercourse with Europe, to regain its former importance, which depended, principally, upon the native manufactures of wool and cotton. Its population, before the Revolution, amounted to 67,000 : it is now much reduced, although not nearly so low as the Census of 1825 appears to indicate. La Puebla being still supposed to contain from forty-five to fifty thousand inhabitants. A large portion of these will, probably, be compelled to have recourse to agricultural labours for support, and as there is a complaint of a want of hands amongst the landed proprietors, the general interests of the State will gain by the suppression of a branch of industry in the towns, which could only be sup- ported by a system of taxation upon all the rest ; the produce of the looms of La Puebla, during the best times, being infinitely dearer than the Euro- pean manufactures, by which they are replaced, even under the pressure of the enormous duties, which, by the old Tariff, were exacted upon them. With the exception of my journey to La Puebla, I was unable, during the first twelvemonth after my MEXICO IN 1827. 281 return from England, to make a single excursion to any distance from the Capital, although there were many places in its vicinity which, from their im- portance, either as mining districts, or as the seats of the most valuable agricultural produce of the country, I was anxious to visit. In February, 1826, however, I commenced a series of Journeys, which I continued, at intervals, during the whole remainder of my residence in Mexico, and in the course of which I visited in person all the most interesting portions of the Republic, South of Durango. I can- not but hope therefore, that it may be in my power to lay before my readers, some information respect- ing the general character and resources of New Spain ; and although I feel that a journal, devoid as mine is of any extraordinary incidents, and con- sisting merely of a recapitulation of the every-day difficulties of a traveller's life in passing through a wild country, can possess but few attractions, yet as I know no other mode of conveying an equally good idea of the peculiarities which I wish to de- scribe, I shall adopt this form in the narration upon which I am about to enter; subdividing my journeys into Sections, in order to render more distinct my account of the most interesting districts. Before I commence, however, upon this plan, it may be as well to mention a few particulars respect- ing the country in the vicinity of the Capital, and to give my route from thence to the valleys of Cuernavac^t and Cuautla Amilpas, in which are situ- 282 MEXICO IN 1827. ated the great Sugar Estates, an account of which is given, in part, in the Third Section of the First Book. The most interesting object in the valley of Mex- ico is the vast system of drainage, Ijy which the Capital is protected against the periodical inunda- tions of the lake of Tezcuc5, which, during the two first centuries after the conquest, threatened it re- peatedly with destruction. Of this system the third Book of Baron Humboldt's Essai Politique contains a description, given with all the accuracy which dis- tinguishes the works of that scientific traveller, upon every point to which his personal observations extended ; and to this I must refer my readers for details, many of which will be found to possess the highest interest. I shall only attempt here to men^ tion a few of the leading facts, in order not to leave entirely unnoticed a subject so worthy in every sense of attention. The valley of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, forms a vast basin, which, although it is situated at an elevation of about 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, serves as a receptacle for the humidity, which filtres from every part of the lofty ridge of porphyritic mountains by which it is surrounded. Not a single stream issues from the valley, with the exception of the Arroyo of Tequisquiac, but it receives the waters of the rivers Papalotla, Tezcuco, Teotihiiacan, Guadalupe, Pachuca, and Giiautitlan, by the accumulation of which the four great lakes of Chalco, (and Xochimiko,) Tezcuco, San Cristobal, MEXICO IN 1827. 283 and Ztimpangfi, are formed. These lakes rise by stages as they approach the Northern extremity of the valley, the waters of the lake of Tezcuco being, in their ordinary state, four Mexican varas and eight inches lower than the waters of the lake of San Cristoval, which again are six varas lower than the waters of the lake of Zumpango, which forms the Northernmost link of this dangerous chain. The level of the great square (Plaza Mayor) of Mexico, is exactly one vara, one foot, and one inch above that of the lake of Tezcuco, and is conse- quently nine varas and five inches lower than that of the lake of Zumpango ; a disproportion, the effects of v/hich have been the more severely felt because the lake Of Ziimpango receives the tribu- tary streams of the river of Guautitlan, the volume of which is more considerable than that of all the other rivers, which enter the valley, combined. In the inundations to which this peculiarity in the formation of the valley of Mexico has given rise, a similar succession of events has always been ob- served. The lake of Ziimpango, swollen by the rapid increase of the river Guautitlan during the rainy season, forms a junction with that of San Cris- tobal, and the waters of the two combined burst the dikes which separate them from the lake of Tezcuco. The waters of this last again, raised suddenly more than a vara above their usual level, and prevented from extending themselves to the East and South- east by the rapid rise of the ground in that direc- 284 - MEXICO IN am. tion, rush back towards the Capital, and fill the streets which approach nearest to their own level. This was the case in 1553, 1580, 1604, and 1607, in each of which years the Capital was laid entirely under water, and the dikes, (Albaradones,) which had been constructed for its protection, destroyed. The rapid succession of these misfortunes at length compelled the Government to turn its attention to some other mode of averting the danger ; and in 1607 an engineer called Enrique Martinez, was commis- sioned by the Marquis of Salinas, who was then Viceroy, to attempt the drainage of the lake of Zumpango by the stupendous canal now known un- der the name of the " Desague de Huehiietoca. The plan of Martinez appears to have embraced two distinct objects, the first of which extended to the lakes of Tezcuco and San Cristoval, while the second was confined to the lake of Zumpango, the superfluous waters of which were to be carried into the valley of Tula, by a subterraneous canal, into which the river Guautitlan was likewise to be com- pelled to flow. The second of these projects only was approved of by the Government ; and the line of the canal having been traced by Martinez between the Cerro (mountain) of Sincoqiie and the hill of Nochistongo, to the North-north-west of Huehuetocii, where the movmtains that surround the valley are less ele- vated than in any other spot, the great subterraneous gallery of Nochistongo was commenced on the 28th MEXICO IN 1827. 285 November, 1607. Fifteen thousand Indians were employed upon tliis work, and as a number of air- shafts (lumbreras) were sunk, in order to enable them to work upon several different points at once, in eleven months a tunnel (Socabon) of 6,600 metres* in length, three metres five in breadth, and four metres two in height, was concluded. From the Northern extremity of this Socabon, (La boca de San Gregorio,) an open cut of 8,600 metres conducted the waters to the Salto (fall) of the river Tula, where, quitting the valley of Mexico, they precipitate themselves into that of Tula, from a natural terrace of twenty Mexican varas in height, and take their course towards the Bar of Tampico, where they enter the Mexican Gulph. An enter- prize of such magnitude, concluded with such ex- traordinary expedition, could hardly be free from defects ; and Martinez soon discovered that the un- baked mud bricks, (Tepetate,) of which the interior of the Socabon was composed, were unable to resist the action of the water, which, being confined within narrow limits, was at times impelled through the tunnel with irresistible violence. A facing of wood proved equally ineffectual, and masonry was at last resorted to ; but even this, although successful for a time, did not answer permanently the purpose for which it was intended, because the engineer, instead of an elliptical arch, constructed nothing but a sort * The Metre is equal to 39,371 English inches. 286 MEXICO IN 1827. of vault, the sides of which rested upon a foundation of no solidity. The consequence was, that the walls were gradually undermined by the water, and that the vault itself, in many parts, fell in. This accident rendered the Government indifferent to the fate of the gallery, which was neglected, and finally abandoned in the year 1623, when a Dutch engineer, by name Adrian Boot, induced the Viceroy to resume the old system of dykes and embank- ments, and to give orders for closing the Socabon of Nochistongo. A sudden rise in the lake of Tezcuco caused these orders to be revoked, and Martinez was again allowed to proceed with his works, which he continued until the 20th June, 1629, when an event took place, the real causes of which have never been ascertained. The rainy season having set in with unusual vio- lence, Martinez, either desirous to convince the in- habitants of the Capital of the utility of his gallery, or fearful, (as he himself stated,) that the fruits of his labour would be destroyed by the entrance of too great a volume of water, closed the mouth of the Socabon, without having communicated to any one his intention to do so. The effect was instan- taneous ; and in one night the whole town of Mexico was laid under water, with the exception of the Plaza Mayor, and one of the suburbs. In all the other streets the water rose upwards of three feet, and during five years, (from 1629 to 1631,) canoes formed the only medium of communication between MEXICO IN 1827. 287 them. The foundations of many of the principal houses were destroyed ; trade was paralized ; the lower classes reduced to the lowest state of misery ; and orders were actually given by the Court of Madrid to abandon the town, and to build a new Capital in the elevated plains between Tacuba. and Tacubaya, to which the waters of the lakes, even before the conquest, had never been known to extend. The necessity of this measure was obviated by a succession of earthquakes in the dry year of 1634, when the surface of the valley was cracked and rent in various directions, and the waters gradually dis- appeared ; a miracle for which due credit should be given to the Virgin of Guadalupe, by whose power- ful intercession it is said to have been effected. Martinez, who had been thrown into confinement in 1629, was released upon the termination of the evils which his imprudence was said to have occa- sioned ; and again placed by a new Viceroy, (the Marquis of Ceralvo,) at the head of the works, by which similar visitations were to be averted in fu- ture. Under his superintendence the great dike, or Calzada of San Cristobal was constructed, by which the lake of that name is divided from that of Tez- cQco. This gigantic work, which consists of two distinct masses, the first one league, and the second 1,500 varas in length, is ten varas in width, (or thickness) throughout, and from three and a half to four varas in height. It is composed entirely of 288 MEXICO IN 1827. stone, with buttresses of solid masonry on both sides, and three sluices, by which, in any emergency, a communication between the lakes can be effected, and regulated at the same time. The whole was concluded, like the gallery of NochistongS, in eleven months, although as many years would now be required for such an undertaking. But in those days the sacrifice of life, (and particularly of Indian life,) in public works, was not regarded. Many thousands of the natives perished before the Desagiie was completed ; and to their loss, as well as to the hardships endured by the survivors, may be ascribed the horror with which the name of Hiiehuetoca is still pronounced by their descendants. It is not my intention to follow the progress of the canal of Hiiehuetoca through all the various changes which occurred in the plans pursued with respect to it from 1637, when the direction of the works was again taken from Martinez, and confided to the Monks of the Order of San Francisco, until 1767, when, under the Viceroyalty of the Marquis de Croix, the Consulado, or corporate body of mer- chants of Mexico, engaged to complete this great national undertaking. The necessity of converting the Socabon of Martinez into an open cut, (Tajo abierto) had long been felt, it having been found impossible to prevent the Socabon from being con- tinually choked up by the sand and rubbish depo- sited by the water on its passage ; but as the A\'ork was only prosecuted with vigour, when the danger MEXICO IN 1827. 289 of an inundation became imminent, and was almost suspended in the dry years, 2,310 Mexican varas of the northern part of the Gallery remained untouched, after the expiration of one hundred and thirty years, when the Consulado was entrusted with the comple- tion of the arduous task. As the old line of the gallery was to be preserved, it became necessary to give the cut, which was to be sunk perpendicularly upon it, an enormous width at the top, in order to prevent the sides from falling in ; and in the more elevated parts, between the mountain of Syncoqiie and the hill of Nochistongo, for the space of 2,624 feet, the width across varies from 278 to 360 feet, while the per- pendicular depth is from 147 to 196 feet. The whole length of the cut, from the sluice called the Vertideros to the Salto of the river Tula, is 67,537 feet, or 24,530 Mexican varas. The highest point of the hill of Nochistongo, is that called Boveda Real, and it would be difficult when looking down from it upon the stream below, and following with the eye the vast opening through which it seeks an issue, to conceive that the whole is indeed the work of man, did not the mounds on either side, as yet but imperfectly covered with vegetation, and the regular outline of the terraces, denote both the recency of its completion, and the impossibility of attributing it to any natural convulsion. The Obra del Consulado, as the open cutting is called, was concluded in the year 1789- It cost nearly a million of dollars ; and the whole expence VOL. II. u 290 MEXICO IN 1827. of the drainage, from 1607 to the beginning of the present century, including the various projects com- menced, and abandoned when only partially exe- cuted, the dikes connected with the Desague, and the two canals, which communicate with the lakes of San Cristoval and Zumpango, is estimated at 6,247,670 dollars, or 1,249,534/. sterhng. It is sup- posed that one-third of this sum would have proved sufficient to cover all the expences, had Martinez been furnished, in the first instance, with the means of executing his project upon the scale which he had judged necessary ; for it is in the reduced dimen- sions of the gallery of Nochistongo, which was never equal to the volume of the water, to which, at parti- cular seasons, it afforded an outlet, that all the sub- sequent expenditure has originated. The works are now in a very bad state, having been entirely neglected during the Revolution. In a report drawn up by Don Jose Maria Moro, in October 1823, the necessity of immediate repairs is forcibly demonstrated ; but as the last few years have been remarkably dry, it is probable that the old Spanish system of procrastination will be ad- hered to, and that nothing will be done until the dread of an inundation compels the Government to turn its attention to the subject. A few thou- sand dollars would suffice to clear the Tajo of the accumulations of earth and rocks, by which the passage of the water is at present obstructed ; but as these, if suffered to remain, form a sort of dam. MEXICO IN 1827. 291 in the vicinity of whicii the water accumnlates until it hollows out a basin, or reservoir, by undermining the banks on each side, the consequences will, in a few years, become very serious, and may probably render the whole work useless, at the moment when its services are most indispensalDle. If in an effective state, the canal of Nochistongo is regarded as fully sufficient to ensure the Capital against any risk of inundation from the North ; but to the South, as Humboldt very justly observes, no precautions have been taken ; not because there is no danger of a similar visitation, but because that danger has not so frequently occurred. The level of the lakes of Chalco, and Xochimilco, which are distinguished by the peculiarity of their water being sweet, instead of brackish, like that of the other three lakes, is higher by one vara and eleven inches than that of the Plaza Mayor of the Capital, and, consequently, exceeds by two varas and two feet the mean level of the waters of the lake of Tezcuco. A junction between these two lakes would, there- fore, be productive of exactly the same effects, as' that of the Central and Northern lakes ; against which so many precautions have been thought ne- cessary. In the great inundation, which took place before the Conquest, the history of which has been preserved by the Aztec historians, the case actually occurred, and the water rose, in the streets of Mex- ico, to five and six metres above its ordinary level, although not one drop of water from the Northern u 2 292 MEXICO IN 18-27. lakes entered that of Tezcuco. At that time, it is stated that the water issued in torrents from the sides of the mountains^ and that in it were found fishes peculiar to the Tierra Caliente, and unknown, either before or since, upon the Table-land. It is not probable that a similar phenomena should be of frequent recurrence ; but causes much less extra- ordinary in their effect, would be sufficient to en- danger the town. Should the snows of Popocate- petl, for instance, be melted by a violent eruption,* (an event by no means improbable, since that vol- cano has been very recently ascertained to be in a state of activity,) an immediate inundation from the lakes of Chfdco and Xochimllco would take place ; nor is there any channel, through which their waters could now find an issue. In the rainy years of 1768, and 1764, Mexico was in the greatest danger, and formed an island for several months : in 1772 it would have been reduced to a similar state, had not a water-spout, {una manga de agua,) which traversed the valley, fortunately burst near the Northern, instead of the Southern extremity, where its effect was diminished by the vicinity of the Canal of Hiiehuetoca. * Humboldt proves the possibility of such an event, by stating, that when at Guyaquil, on the coast of the Province of Quito, in 1802, he himself saw the cone of the mountain of Cotopaxi, (superior in height to Popocatepetl) so thoroughly heated in a single night as to be entirely divested of its enormous coating of snow, (io» enonne calotte de veige). MEXICO IN 18-27. 293 The Viceroy Don Josd Iturrigaray, was induced, by these repeated warnings to resume the project of a canal, so traced as to effect a communication between the Northern extremity of the lake of Tezcuco and the tunnel of Nochistongo, the length of which, from the Calzada of San Cristobal to the sluice of Los Vertideros, would be about 34,888 yards, or 37,978 Mexican Varas. This idea was originally suggested by Martinez, but rejected by the Government on account of the expence, which consists not so much in the length of the canal, as in the necessity of deepening the whole of the cut of Nochistongo, from Los Verti- deros to a little beyond the Boveda Real, (a space of 12,280 Varas,) in order to bring it to a level with the waters of the lake of Tezcuco. Notwith- standing this circumstance, the undertaking was commenced in 1805, but was suspended upon the imprisonment of Iturrigaray in 1808, and entirely lost sight of during the civil war. In the present state of the country, it is improbable that it will be resumed, for some years at least, during which time the Mexicans must entrust their protection to the Virgin of Guadalupe, to whose kind attentions they are already so much indebted. I visited Huehuetoca in February 1826. The village is in a wretched state, and affords no sort of accommodation; but this we were fortunate enough to find at the Hacienda of Xalpa, which is situated about a mile from the bridge, at which the great 294 MEXICO IN 1827. Northern road of Ticrra adcntro crosses the canal of Nochistongo. The distance from Mexico to HuS- huetoca is eleven leagues ; the road passes through the little towns of Tacubii, or Guadulupe, (according to the gate by which you leave the Capital,) Tii- nepantla, and Guautitlan ; the last of which, from the number of wooden columns by whicli a succes- sion of porticoes in the front of the houses is sup- ported, has, at a distance, quite a Grecian look. The morning after our arrival at Xalpa, we rode along the whole course of the cknague to tlie Ha- cienda del Srdto, (a distance of nearly four leagues,) below which, at the bottom of a very abrupt natural terrace, the valley of Tula commences. The situ- ation of this Hacienda is very wild and romantic ; but, after surveying the gigantic works descriljod in the preceding pages, one cannot repress a feeling of disappointment on seeing the comparative insigni- ficance of the waterfall, (el Salto,) in which they terminate. The height is (as I have already stated) about twenty varas,* or forty-three English feet ; but the volume of water, which, during the rainy sea- son, is considerable, was, when we saw it, reduced to a little tiny stream, that seemed to thread its way with difficulty through the masses of rock by which the passage was obstructed. From Jalpa we returned to IVIexico by an entirely new route, which led us through the Indian village * The iMfxicaii Vara is e(iual l<> 2 feot 2 inches 0.4G lines English. MEXICO IN 1827. 295 of SilcaltSpec, along the borders of the Lake of Ziim- pango, to the town of that name, and from thence, across the mountains, to San Juan de Teotihuacan, where we passed the night. On the following morn- ing we visited the pyramids, which lie about two miles from the Pueblo, and afterwards rested for nearly an hour in an avenue of cypresses terminated by a large church. One of these cypresses is of singular beauty : we thought it but little inferior to those of Chapoltepec. I can add nothing to the description of the py- ramids given by Humljoldt, whose work contains infinitely more than is known respecting them by the natives at the present day. The first, (Tonatiuh Ytzaqual,) the House of the Sun, has a base of 682 feet in length; its height is 180 feet. The second, (Metzli Itzaqual,) the House of the Moon, is thirty- six feet lower than the other, and its base is much smaller. Both are truncated, like the pyramid of Cholula, and are of Toltec origin : they are com- posed of stones, and clay intermixed, and, although, the form of the exterior is now almost lost amidst the quantity of aloes, cactuses, and thorny brush- wood, by vhich it is covered, there are parts where the steps, or terraces, which rose gradually to the summit, can be still distinctly traced. A group, or (as Humboldt calls it) a system of little pyramids, symmetrically arranged, extends for some distance around the Houses of the Sun and Moon ; and amongst them are found continually 296 MEXICO IN 1827. knives and arrow heads of obsidian, which denote how much the place must have been frequented by the priests and warriors of the tribe. I am not aware that the interior of any of these pyramids has been examined, although from their Aztec name, Micoatl, (the Plain of Death,) it is probable that they were used as burying-places, either for the chiefs, or the victims sacrificed in their religious rites. From Teotihuacan we proceeded to Tezcfico, a town formerly the residence of a tributary Indian prince, but now almost in ruins. Traces of its former importance are, however, still evident in the remains of fortifications, which must have been for- midable to enemies armed only with arrows and sUngs. There is a curious bridge, too, near the town, of a date anterior to the Conquest, although it is in a perfect state of preservation at the present day. From the Hacienda of Chiipingo, about a league beyond Tczctico, where we were most hospitably received by the Marquis of Vibanco, to whom it belongs, we visited both this bridge, which is thrown over the river of Tezcuco, and the pretended bath of Montezuma, of which Mr. Bullock's book contains so singular an account. What it may have been, it is not easy to determine, but I think it may safely be pronounced never to have lieen used as a bath, from the smallness of the size, and the extreme in- convenience of the position, to which the Imperial MEXICO IN 1827. 297 bather must necessarily have been confined during his ablutions. It seems more probable that it may have served to receive the waters of a spring, since dried up, as its depth is considerable, while the edge on one side is formed into a spout. Chapingo is one of the finest specimens of Mex- ican Haciendas. The house was built by the Jesuits, to whom the estate originally belonged, and pur- chased of the Government, on the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, by the ancestor of the present Marchioness of Vibanco, out of the proceeds of the Mine of Barranco, at Bolaiios. The lands about it are exceedingly rich, as an abundant supply of water for irrigation is drawn from a reservoir, into which a number of little streams from the neigh- bouring mountains are conducted. The vicinity of the Capital ensures a ready market, and this gives so great a value to the crops, that the income de- rived from the estate seldom falls short of 60,000 dollars, (12,000/.) per annum. The Troges, or buildings erected to receive the grain, are very mag- nificently constructed ; they are high, airy, and paved with large flat stones, varying in length from seventy to ninety feet. The accompanying drawina; will convey an idea of the style of building, which is, however, much superior to that of the generality of country houses in New Spain, and must not' be taken as a criterion for others. Chapingo lies about nine leagues from Mexico, and nearly as far from San Juan de Teotihiiacrin. The road to this last 298 MEXICO IN 1827. place runs between the lake of Tezcuco and the -range of hills which form the Eastern boundary of the valley: that to the Capital passes near the Southern extremity of tlie lake, and joins the great La Puebla road about four leagues from the gates of the town. We returned to Mexico by this route after an absence of six days, during which time we had made the tour of the whole valley, with the ex- ception of the portion lying between Chalco and San Agiistin de las Ciievas, which I visited subsequently on my way to and from Cuernitvacii and Cuautla. As the season was advancing, and the heat in- creasing dady in the Tkrra Caiiente, I resolved not to defer my expedition to that place, and commenced my journey within a very few days after returning from Chapingo. The distance from Mexico to Ciiernavrica does not exceed twenty leagues, (fifty miles,) but it is difficult to perform it in a single day on account of the passage of the mountains to the Soutli of tlie valley, both the ascent and descent being exceedingly rocky and precipitous ; I therefore left the Capital on the evening of the 25th of Fe- bruary, and slept at the village of San Agustin de las Cuevas, about four leagues off, where I was again indebted for lodgings to the hospitality of the Mar- quis of Vibanco. San Agustin was formerly the favourite residence of the nobility and great mer- chants of the Capital, whose houses and gardens formed, by degrees, a village, the appearance of which, ill 1803, Humboldt describes as singularly MEXICO IN 1827. 299 beautiful. It was abandoned during the Revolu- tion, being exposed to the attacks of Insurgent par- ties from the mountains, and is now only frequented during the great fair, which is held there annually, in the month of May. The object of this fair being merely amusement, it is attended by every creature in Mexico that can save, beg, or borrow a dollar for the occasion. The houses at San Agustin are taken many months beforehand, and from three to five hundred dollars rent is frequently paid for the three days. Amongst the ladies it is the etiquette to change their dresses four or five times in the course of the day ; once, for the early promenade before breakfast ; again for the cockpit, which opens at ten o'clock ; a third time for dinner ; a fourth for the Calvario, where a circle is usually formed for dancing ; and a fifth for the public ball, which commences at eight o'clock, and lasts till twelve. Immense sums of money are won and lost, in the course of the day, by the men, both in bet- ting upon their cocks, and at the Monte tables, one of which is to be found in almost every house. There are silver Montes for the lower classes, but at all the respectable tables nothing but gold is seen, and no smaller stake than a doubloon, (an onza, about Si. 4^. English money,) allowed. The bank at these varies from 1,500 to 3,000 doubloons. Fifty or sixty of these, (about 200/.) are an ordinary stake upon the turn of a card ; but I have seen as many as six hundred and twenty risked and won. 300 MEXICO IN 1827. There is no iiiiiit whatever to the stake, and unfair play is out of the question, but the chances are so much in favour of the table, that few persons con- tinue winners for any length of time. Diiring the whole fair the streets and squares of San Agustin are filled, by day and by night, with crowds of people, who sleep a la belie etoile, or take shelter under the carriages, with which the Plaza is crowded. Provisions of all kinds are to be found in booths erected for the occasion ; horses and mules are picketed in every direction round the town ; temporary huts are raised with boughs and mats, and as a profusion of flowers is used in all these structures, nothing can be more variegated than the appearance of this motley scene. In the evening, the cockpit is carpeted, and lighted up with chan- deliers ; cushions are placed upon the benches, looking-glasses suspended from the wooden pillars, and, as the roof, which is of shingles, is concealed, in part, Ijy a quantity of green boughs, the whole forms a pretty, circular ball-room, in which all the elite, and all the refuse, of Mexican society may be seen assembled at the same time. The lower classes, however, are excluded from the centre of the house, into which no one improperly dressed is admitted, and forced to take their seats upon the higher tiers of benches. Here they exercise the usual privilege of the one-shilling gallery, by applauding most voci- ferously the performances of any lady, whose style of danci)ig happens to please them, and bv calling MEXICO IN 1827. 301 occasionally for the Jarave, the Pet in era, or other dances of the country, with an exhibition of which they are not unfrequently gratified. On the 26th of February I left San Agiistin at a very early hour. The ascent commences almost immediately, and is rendered doubly toilsome by the Arenal, a bed of deep blue sand, that extends over a space of about two leagues, and exhausts both the horses and mules, by the treacherous nature of the footing which it affords them. The road passes by the Village of Ajusco, and the Venta del Guarda, from whence it winds its way through a succession of rocks, and pine-woods, to the Cruz del Marqiies, a point about 2,360 feet above the level of the Capital. Here the descent to Ciiernavaca begins and continues uninterruptedly for nearly four leagues to the Pueblo of Juchilac, where the first indications of an approach to the Tierra Caliente appear. These increase rapidly in the direction of Ciiernavaca, until, in the plains immediately below the town, the climate and the productions of the Coast replace, at once, those of the Table-land. The transition is the more sudden, because, on the Pacific side, the Valleys are sheltered from the North winds, which have so extraordinary an effect upon the vegetation upon the Eastern slope of the Cordillera. Thus CUernavaca, although 1,093 feet higher than Jalapa, possesses all the characteristics of the country about Plan del Rio, or Puente del 302 MEXICO IN 1827. Rey. The inhabitants have the same dark tint ; the sky the same glowing aspect ; and although the vomito is miknown, in the rainy season agues pre- vail, of so violent a nature, as almost to partake of the character of the typhus, and to be hardly less injurious in their effects upon the constitution. The town of Cuernavaca lies 2,040 feet lower than Mexico, and 4,400 feet below the Cruz del IMarqiies, which is the highest point of the interven- ing ridge. It is a place of no great importance in itself, and only derives interest from the richness of the surrounding district. During the two days which I passed there, I visited two of the great Haciendas de Azucar, (Sugar Estates,) mentioned in the first Book, San Gabriel and Atlacomulco, the first of which belongs to the family of Yermo, the second to that of the Duke of Monteleone, the pre- sent representative of the house of Cortez. I found in both the same exuberant fertility of soil, the same abundance of water for irrigation, and the same in- attention to comfort or cleanliness, in the vicinity of the house, which, in the valleys of Ciiautla and Cuernavaca, seldom denotes by its appearance the value of the estate. The average })roduce of San Giibiiel is calculated at forty thousand Arrobas of sugar (each of 251bs.) ; that of Atlacomfilco does not exceed thirty thousand ; in addition to which, however, there is a Coffee plantation containing about fifty thousand young plants, which appeared to be in a very thriving state. The distance of these MEXICO IN 1827. 303 Haciendas from Cuernavaca varies from two to three leagues. The heat, which I found very oppressive after ten o'clock, prevented me from extending ray excursions farther, although the beauty of the coun- try, and the abundance of game, (particularly hares and quails,) would have induced me, at any other time, to prolong my stay. The valley of Cuernavaca is separated from that of Cuautla. by a ridge of elevated ground, commen- cing a little beyond Atlacomtilco, and extending about four leagues to the South-east, where it ter- minates in two singular hills, called Las Tetillas. From these you descend at once to a lower terrace, which begins at the foot of the ridge, with the village of Yaiitepec, one of the most beautiful spots that I recollect having ever seen. The riches of the inhabitants consist in the groves of orange-trees, by which their houses are surrounded, and from which both the Capital, and the town of La Puebla, are supplied with this fruit. One of the numerous streams that descend from the Table-land, runs through the Pueblo, dispensing fertility on every side ; a little garden is attached to each cottage ; and the brilliant whiteness of these dwellings con- trasts, in a very pleasing manner, with the dark green of the orange-trees behind, broken at intervals by the bright hue of the fruit. Yaiitepec is about five leagues from Cuernavaca, and four from Cocoyoc, a Hacienda belonging to Don Antonio Velasco, the father-in-law of General Teran, who had the good- 304 MEXICO IX 1827. ness to allow me to take up my residence there for a few days, as the most convenient spot for visiting both the town of Cuimtla, and the neighbouring es- tates, for most of which I had letters from General Bravo, and other friends. With the exception of about one league of solid rock, upon whicli our horses could with difficulty keep their footing, the whole road from Yaiitepec lay through a richly cul- tivated country, watered by a hundred rivulets, and studded with Haciendas, the most considerable of which, (San Carlos,) we visited on our way. No- thing could be finer than the scenery ; and the vigo- rous growth of the canes, though planted much more closely than is usual in the West Indian Islands, attested the richness of the soil, which, without the aid of manure, seldom fails to yield a most abun- dant crop. Dr. Wilson, a friend by whom I was accompanied upon this occasion, and who, from a long residence in Jamaica, was better qualified than myself to judge of the relative capabilities of the two countries, was much struck with this circum- stance, and pointed it out to me as well worthy of attention. Notwithstanding the heat, by commencing our excursions at a very early hour, we contrived to visit, during the two days that we passed at Cocoyoc, both the town of Cuautla Amilpas, (which I was curious to see from its connexion with the history of the Revolution, and the exploits of Morelos,) and the Haciendas of Pantitliin, Cilsasano, Santa ]\IKXICO IN 1827. 305 Ines, Caldeion, and Cohahuistla. This was suffi- cient to give us a very good idea of the mode in which the great sugar plantations of Mexico are conducted, as well as of their extent ; but upon both these subjects, all the most essential details will be found in the Third Section of the First Book, and a reference to this will render it superfluous for me to enter here into any farther particulars. The popidation of the Valley bears evident traces of a recent mixture of African blood. The colour of the skin is darker, and the lank hair, peculiar to the aborigines, is exchanged for curly, or woolly locks. The men are a fine athletic race, but wild, both in their appearance and habits ; they delight in glaring colours, as well as in the noisy music of the negroes, and form, when heated with liquor, and dancing after the labours of the day, a striking con- trast to the meek and submissive demeanour of the Indians on the Table-land. Culutla Amilpas, which is four leagues from Cocoyoc, and thirteen from Cilernavrica, has reco- vered entirely from the ravages of the first years of the Civil War. The Indian suburb is exceedingly pretty, but the town itself, from the lowness of the houses, which are mostly of Tq^etate, and the breadth of the streets, seems very little calculated to resist the attack of a regular force. The defence made there by Morelos, with a few hundred men, against the whole Viceregal array, commanded by Calleja in person, is hardly a greater proof of deter- VOL. II. X 306 MEXICO IN 1827. mination on his part, than of the want of courage on that of his adv^ersaries. On the 4th of March, I quitted Cocoyoc ; not without regret, for although the house is bad, no- tliing can be more striking than the view of Popo- catepetl from the balcony, where we used to sit, and enjoy the evening breeze, after the fatigue of our morning's ride. A coffee plantation, too, inter- sected by walks of orange trees, and kept in the nicest order, is always a beautiful object ; and to an eye accustomed to the stunted vegetation of the Table-land, the foliage even of the more ordinary trees, in which the Tierra Caliente abounds, must always be a relief. The ascent towards the Capital commences very abruptly. On the outskirts of the Valley of Cuautla, are two little Ranches, near which most of the ba- nanas are grown with which the Mexican market is supplied. The change from the cane huts of these Indians, buried amongst the leaves of the Platano Arton, to the Pine forests, that occupy the region immediately al)ove, is extremely sudden. Through these you labour on for about eight leagues, in the course of which two or three uninteresting Pueblos are passed, when you commence a very gradual descent into the valley of Mexico, which we entered to the South of the town of Chalco, where we passed the night. It would not have been impossible to reach the Capital the same evening, as the distance did not exceed nine leagues ; but our horses had MEXICO IN 1827. 307 been feasting upon the green tops of the sugar cane during their visit to T'mrra Caliente, and were so weakened by this heating food, that they were quite exhausted before we reached Chrdco, although that town is not more than eleven leagues from Cocoyoc. We were therefore compelled to give them a night of repose and hard food, after which we reached Mexico at an early hour on the following morning. (March 5.) K 2 308 , MEXICO IN 1027. SECTION IV. PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVELLING IN MEXICO. — JOURNEY TO THE MINING DISTRICTS OF TLAL- PUJAHUA. So little was known in the city of Mexico of the manner in which the affairs of the great English Mining Companies were conducted, and such con- tradictory reports prevailed with regard to the sys- tem pursued by them, that I determined to seek, by personal observation, that information which I found it impossil)le to draw from any other source. In this I was influenced not merely by the interest that I naturally felt in the issue of enterprises, in which British capital to so large an amount was invested ; but by a wish not to render myself re- sponsible, in the reports which I might be called upon to transmit to His Majesty's Government, upon tlie suljjcct, for any errors but my own. In the Capital, the opinions of most people seemed to be influenced by feelings of merely a personal MEXICO IN 1H27. 309 nature. There were so many prepossessions in favour of particular districts, so many prejudices against others, and such rivalities amongst the agents or friends of the different Companies, that I found it hopeless to attempt to arrive at any reasonable conclusion with regard to their prospects while at a distance from the scene of action ; and, under this impression, I resolved, in any of those inaccuracies into which the want of data might betray me, to ensure to myself the satisfaction of knowing that I had, at least, done all that in me lay to avoid them. In preparing for the execution of a plan, which rendered it necessary for me to undertake a series of journeys amounting in their aggregate to nearly three thousand English miles, I endeavoured to lessen, as much as possible, the inconveniences with which travelling in Mexico is attended, by taking beforehand all those little precautions, the neglect of which in the first instance is sure to occasion so much subsequent vexation and delay. I accordingly procured the very best horses that were to be ob- tained, both for myself and my servants, and took equal care in the selection of my baggage, or carga mules, upon which, in fact, the whole comfort of a journey depends. A Mexican inn, or even a second-rate Hacienda, contains little or nothing besides the bare walls. If the traveller be very much fatigued, he may stretch himself at full length upon the floor, or perhaps he may obtain the luxury of a table, which, as present- 310 MKXICO IN 1027. ing a less uneven surface, forms a Ijetter substitute for a coudi. To any thinj^ beyond tliis he must not asi)n(,', nor must he exjject to fmd, except in the towns, any otlier provisions llian tortillas and Chile. He therefore depends, both for rest and food, upon his own supplies, and of these he on<;ht never to lose si«i;ht. In order to acconii)lish this, the carga mules sliould be of the best Jhwango breed, light and active, and able to continue at a trot before the horses thirty or foity miles, with a load of ] 50 or lOOlbs. Thv Mexicans attach this load to the animal in a most slovenly manner, by merely balan- cing the packages ui)on a pad, composed of skins, and sackcloth stuffed with straw, and then girting them with such violence as frccpiently to injure the mule, by creating swellings either luider the girths, or upon the withers, on which the whole load rests in going down hill. 'J'iie packages too, iccpiire con- stant attention, and alteration, as the balance is destroyed by the roughness of the motion when travellii)g at a (juick pace, although at a very slow walk, fewer changes are necessary. I found that so much inconvenience arose from the frequency of these stoppages on my v/ay to Cuautla, that I determined on my return home to introduce an innovation, against wliich all my Mexican servants ])roteste(l, until tlicy were taught by experience how much it tended to diminish their own trouble. I employed a French saddler recently established ill the capital to make me fom- ICnglish ))acksaddles. MKXTCO IX 1H27. 'jll Upon tlio model of one which had gone through tfie Peninsular war, each furnished with a tree, so as to prevent the load from resting immediately upon the mule's back, and these again provided vvitli iron hooks on each side, to which a portmanteau or bed is attached by corresponding rings and straps. In the rainy season, an oilskin cover, or tarpaulin, is thrown over the whole, and secured by a broad leather girth ; this serves to keep the load steady, while breechings and a breast-piece prevent the pack- saddle itself from slipping, even in the most pre- cipitous roads. One of the trees was fitted up in a different mannci- from the rest, being provided v/ith iron brackets, made to fit a canteen, which was slipped in between them, and secured by a single strap. From the moment that I adopted this sys- tem, I discarded all the clumsy Mexican " aparejos," and I had the satisfaction both of never having a mule afterwards with a sore back, and of seeing them perform their journeys with ease and con- venience. My luggage generally consisted of a canteen, which contained cooking utensils, as well as a small breakfast and dinner set for four people, and formed a light load for one mule : one of Thompson's small brass camp beds, with a port- manteau to balance it, was allotted to a second mule : the third carried two boxes for wine, provisions, and other necessaries, of which we laid in a stock in the larger towns ; and the fourth the beds of Dr. Wilson and Mr. Carrington, a young friend by whom f was 312 MEXICO IN 1827. generally accompanied. A single muleteer, duly provided with his sabre and lasso, took charge of this detachment, which preceded the rest of the party ; and in addition to him we were usually ac- companied by three men servants, two Mexicans and an English groom, who, being all armed as well as ourselves, with pistols and sabres, besides two or three double-barrelled fowling-pieces, formed a party sufficiently strong to secure us against any danger of an attack from robbers. When once trained to European wants, I know no better travelling servants in the world than the Mexicans. They are a fine manly race, excellent horsemen, adepts in the use of that indispensable instrument the lasso, and capable of enduring every sort of fatigue. They eat any thing, always look respectably, if provided, as mine were, with the leather (Payo) dress of the country, and sleep upon the ground, wrapped in the manga, which each man carries behind his saddle, round your bed if you bivouac, or stretched across your room door at the Ventas, where, as every thing is open, you have seldom any otlrer security than what the presence of your own attendants may give. In mine I used to feel the most perfect confidence, for, when treated well, I have found them capable of great attachment, and although I had not occasion to put them to any severe trial, I am convinced that in an emergency they would not have deserted me. I know few sensations more })leasing in life than those whicli I have experienced when starting, thus MEXICO IN 1827. 313 accompanied, upon one of my long expeditions, with all my party well mounted, a few spare mules and horses driven before us, and the certainty of finding, after traversing a new country, in the principal ob- ject of the journey, enough to gratify curiosity, and often to remove unpleasant doubts. There is some- thing so wild and independent in the whole thing, that there are few people, who have stamina enough to support the fatigue, that do not learn to enjoy it. You forget Europe and all the mingled advantages and restraints of civilization, and trusting to your horse for carrying you to the place of your desti- nation, and often to your gun for a meal upon the way, you care neither for mountains nor rivers, but take at once the shortest and the most picturesque road, or branch off to the east or the west, at plea- sure, should there be any thing, on either side, to attract attention. The Mexican horses are admi- rably adapted to this sort of travelling. They are small, but active, and full of spirit ; extremely light in hand, and ready to spring off at full speed upon the slightest motion of the rider. Many of them possess in addition to these good qualities that most invaluable requisite for the road, a passo, of the ad- vantages of which no one, who has not tried it, can form an idea. The passo consists in a peculiar mo- tion of the horse, by which the hind legs are drawn along the ground, sustaining nearly the whole weight of the body, while the fore are raised in high and graceful action ; the rider, from the gentle movement 314 MEXICO IN 1827. of the hind quarter, is hardly moved in his seat, while the horse before appears to be going at a trot, and does in fact move at nearly the same rate. A good passo horse will perform, with ease to himself, six miles in the hour, and will hold this pace over good ground for several successive leagues. I had one, known in Mexico by the name of the Mascarillo, (from a peculiar white mark on one side of the head) whose passo was so rapid as to keep any other horse nearly at a gallop : when at his full speed he was thought to move at the rate of ten or eleven miles in the hour, but this was an exertion which he could not sustain for any length of time. A more ordinary passo varies from four to six miles in the hour, seldom exceeding the one, or falling much short of the other. I never had above two of the first kind, one of which was a little brown horse which Mrs. Ward used to ride, the other a favourite of my own, a Rosillo, (or Roan) very fast, and with legs like a deer, but with such courage that he performed all my journeys with less injury to himself than others ap- parently of three times his strength. Dr. Wilson had a third of clumsier make, but an equally good passo, and it was curious to see with what ease these three creatures went over the ground, while all the rest of the horses were wearied out with their efforts to keep up with them. Passo horses of this description are valuable, and will sell, in any part of the coun- try, for one hundred and fifty or two hundred dol- lars, (.SO/, or 40/.) while a troton, or trotting horse MEXICO IN 1827. 315 of the very best kind, may be bought for fifty dollars, (10/.) and might have been purchased for half the money in 1823, before the influK of English raised the prices, as it always does. Many people prefer mules to horses for a long journey, and, in a very mountainous country, they certainly answer best : they are useful, too, for servants ; but for my own riding I should never employ them, for it was my delight to stop, wherever there was game in the vi- cinity of the road, and, after shooting for half an hour, to rejoin my party at a canter, which would spoil a passo mule, although it does no sort of harm to a horse. When kept at their regular pace, how- ever, mules are most extraordinary animals, and seem capable of continuing at the rate of thirty miles a day, from January to December, without fatigue or inconvenience. I had one little chesnut macho, that had been with Mr. Hervey to the Interior, and afterwards both with him and Mr. Morier to the coast. It was then transferred to Mr, Baring, with whom it went to Tepic, from whence it returned just in time for me to repurchase it at the com- mencement of my own travels. In all these it car- ried my muleteer, a very heavy man ; and when, in April 1837, I transferred the two together to Mr. Stokes, to go over no inconsiderable portion of the same ground again, there was as Httle in the mule, as in the rider, to indicate the fatigues which it had undergone. I may say the same of a little black terrier, one of the two only dogs that survived the 316 MEXICO IN 1827. journey fi'om tlie coast. Four greyhounds and ano- ther terrier died mad upon the sands, within a league of Veracruz ; but this little creature being younger, suffered less from the sun ; and, from the moment that we reached the Table-land, formed, at once, an attachment to tlie mules, which continued unchanged during the whole of my stay. In defiance of heat and dust, the dog always accompanied the leading mule ; at night he slept amongst the packsaddles, where his vigilance was of great use ; and except to be fed, nothing ever induced him to enter a house. He still, I believe, continues the same career, as I thought it a pity, on my departure, to separate him from his friends, with whom he has since been to Catorce and Tepantilan. I shall finish this general outline of travelling in Mexico, by saying that in the hot months of May, July, and August, in the course of which, from the extreme dryness of the season in 1826, I was enabled to visit Tlalpiijahua, Temascrdtepec, Real del Monte and Zimapan,^we used to set off long before day-break in the morning ; so that we usually got our day's journey over by twelve or one o'clock. In ]\Iexico, you never stop upon the road to bait, but perform the whole distance, whatever it may be, without a halt. It is better for the horses and mules, as they have a longer time together for rest and food, which, in so hot a climate, they do not enjoy without water, and this cannot be given them, in any (juantity, until the day's work is done. Nor MEXICO IN 1827. 317 is there any thing in the arrangement inconvenient for the traveller, as it gives him time to dress and bathe before dinner, and afterwards to stroll about in the cool of the evening, where there is any thing to be seen, until the approach of darkness summons him to bed. It is then that the luxuries of musquito curtains and portable bedsteads are really felt, par- ticularly if the length of the legs is calculated, (as it always should be) so as just to raise you beyond the maximum of a tlea's lea]:>. Sheltered from all annoyances of this kind, and extended in peace and comfort upon your elastic stretcher, you soon forget the fatigues of the past day, and are awakened at three the next morning, by your muleteers, ready to face those of the day to come. It always required an hour's work to saddle, and load the mules, make up the beds, and prepare a little stock of cold pro- visions, which we stopped to eat, at eight or nine o'clock, wherever water or Pulque was to be pro- cured. If we got in extremely early, we had usually some books with us to pass the time, and for those who were not thus disposed, tlie kitchen, or the care of the animals, afforded occupation, as, in both, con- stant superintendence was necessary. On the whole, I found my journeys a most agreeable relaxation, after the confinement of the Capital. I ended them with regret ; I look back to them with pleasure, and I should recommence them again to-morrow, with great satisfaction, were my profession to lead me again to a country as little known as Mexico, and 318 MEXICO IN 1827. offering as much to excite attention, and recompense curiosity. The first Mining district that I visited, after my return from Cuautla, was that of Tlalpfijahua, which is situated upon the confines of the State of Valla- doHd, al)out 38 leagues, or 95 English miles, from tlie Capital. The road traverses the mountains that bound the Valley of Mexico to the West, and passes through Taciibayii and Santa Fe to Las Cruces, where the battle between the Insurgents, under Ilidalgo, and the Viceregal troops, commanded by Truxillo, was fought in 1810. From this high ridge, (it is 10,882 feet above the level of the sea,) where a number of crosses and piles of stones still mark out the burying-places of the Indians who fell in the action, the descent towards the valley of Toluca commences, which is 785 feet more elevated than that of Mexico. The town of Lerma lies about a league from the foot of the mountains, upon the borders of the lake, from which the Rio Grande de Santiago takes its rise. This river assumes a dif- ferent name, at first, in almost every village near which it passes, but is the same which, after ferti- lizing the Baxio, and traversing the extremity of the Lake of Chapala, runs through a large portion of the State of Guadalajara, and finally discharges itself at San Bias into the Pacific. It contains a veiy considerable body of water, and is not fordable, even during the dry season, within a very few miles fiom its source. MEXICO IN 1827. 319 Lerma possesses nothing remarkable as a town, except an inn, where, from the frequent visits of foreigners, both beds and provisions may be ob- tained, and where some attention to cleanliness is shown. The place contains about 4000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by Maguey plantations, which produce most excellent Pulque. The distance from the Capital is twelve leagues. From Lerma there are two roads to Tialpiija- hua ; one of which passes through the city of To- luca, while the other, which is four leagues shorter, branches off to the North-west, and runs in a direct line to the town of Istlahuaca, (about twelve leagues from Lerma, and fourteen from Tlalpujahua,) where we slept. For nearly eight leagues we followed a bridle road called El camino de las Cajones, through a country covered with Haciendas of corn, or maize, and large grazing estates, over which immense herds of cattle are scattered. The plain is intersected with canals for irrigation, while the view, which is diversified by a number of villages rising in the distance, and bounded by the Nevada, or Snowy mountains, of Toluca to the extreme South, conveys an impression of fertility and abundance that is very pleasing. For about four leagues before we reached istlahiiaca, we travelled over an elevated and barren ridge ; but cultivation re-appears in the vicinity of the town, (which stands on a little elevation upon the banks of the river Lerma,) and '520 MEXICO IN 1827. continues across the plains of Tepetitlan, to the Hacienda of that name, (five leagues from Istla- huaca,) where the mountains of El Oro and Tlal- jnijahiia commence. Of the remaining nine leagues, the first four are harren and desolate; the five last extend through a succession of Pine forests, in the midst of which the Real of Tlalpiijahua stands. The ancient village of San Pedro and San Pablo, now called Tlalpujahua, where the officers of the Company formed in England under that name re- side, is situated in North latitude 19' 17' 30", West longitude 100% 1'.15', upon the borders of a little stream, which winds down the valley of Tlalpujahua into that of Tepetongo, where it joins the river of Tepetongo, which subsequently unites with that of Lerma. The town is environed by mountains covered with pines, the most considerable of which are La 86- niera, to the North-east, San Lorenzo to the South, and the Cerro del Gallo to the East of the town : the first of these is 1,430 feet, the second 1,160 feet, and the third 8.51 feet, above the level of the bridge of Tlalpujahua, which, again, is 822 feet Ijigher than the town of Mexico, and 8,581 feet above the level of the sea. It is upon the slope of the mountains by which the valley of Tlalpujahua is formed that the prin- cipal mines of the Company are situated, in the hollows, (Caiiadas,) of Las Animas, Los Zapateros, and Laborda. Their position is extremely favour- able for drainage by adits ; and the shafts are neither MEXICO IN 1827. 321 difficult of access, nor at an inconvenient distance from the town, most of them being contained in a circle of two English miles. The metalliferous veins of this district are found principally in the Phyllade, (Thonschiefer, or Clay Slate,) which contains in subordinate strata, 1. Le traumate, (Grauwacke;) 2. Le traumate schisteux, (Schieffrige Grauwacke, or Greywacke Slate;) 3. Le Calcaire, (Transition Limestone;) 4. Le Talcschis- teux, (Talkschiefer ;) 5. Le Feldspath Compacte, (Prismatic Feldspar of Jameson;) 6. Le Diabase, (principally composed of Prismatic Feldspar, and straight-edged Augit of Jameson ; and 7. Quartz. The veins of Laborda and Coronas vary in dimen- sions from 16^ to 5^, and 8^ English feet : that of Las Virgenes attains in some parts, a width of 27^, and even 33 English feet ; nor has any diminution, or falling off, been observed at the greatest depth, to which these veins have yet been explored. The Ores contain Native Gold, (Hexahedral Gold of Jameson,) and Native Silver, (Hexahedral Silver;) which are found in small quantities. The Rhom- boidal Silverglance Q'argoit antimonie sulfure noir) is most abundant ; and next to it the Hexahedral Silverglance, or Argent Sulfur^. The Red Silver, or Argent Antimonie, Sulfure rouge, is less com- mon, but may frequently be found.* * Having professed my ignorance of Mineralogy, I must state that I am indebted for these details to a manuscript report drawn up by Mr. Burkart, Principal Miner of the Tlalpujahua Com- VOL. 11. Y 322 MEXICO IN 1827. Of the former produce of the district of Tlalpuja- hiia nothing certain is known. The great Coronas vein was discovered at a very early period, and has been worked, with occasional intermissions, for up- wards of two hundred years. The Caiiada which bears La Borde's name, and to which he was in- debted for his first fortune, was only discovered in 1743 : there are no returns of the Silver raised from it during the great Bonanza, which gave it cele- brity ; but in stating it at twelve millions of dol- lars, in the eight years, during which the mines were worked, I take onl}^ half the estimate which is usually formed in Mexico of its amount. Tlal- pujahiia lost much of its importance upon La Borde's removal to Tasco, but the mines of the district were worked without interruption until the commence- ment of the Civil War, at which time, according to a Statistical account of the State of ValladoHd pub- lished in 1822, by Don Juan, Jose, Martinez de Li- zarra, from eighteen to twenty thousand dollars were expended weekly in the purchase of ores, and in the payment of the mining labourers. In 1824, it has likewise been ascertained, that Ores to the amount of 100,000 dollars, were raised by the Buscones (Searchers) ; and in 1825, before pan}-, from which I should venture to make farther extracts for the information of Mineralogists, did I not conceive that the re- sults of INIr. Burkart's investigations will, in the course of time, be laid before the world by himself. MEXICO IN 1827. 323 the arrival of the Company, 60,000 dollars more were laid out in a similar way by the only miner who had a command of capital in the district. But it was not by the insulated efforts of an individual that the injuries done by the Revolution could be repaired. The State of Valladolid was constantly the scene of action between the contending parties; and as one of the Insurgent chiefs (Rayon) occupied two for- tified camps in the immediate vicinity of Tlalpujahua, (the Cerro del Gallo, and Coporo,) this district was exposed, for several years, to all the horrors of the war. To escape from these, its inhabitants aban- doned their homes ; and, in June 1825, Mr. de Rivafinoli found, upon his arrival, most of the houses in ruins, and the mines without a building of any kind to denote their existence.* The population was so reduced, that one hundred and fifty workmen were procured with great difficulty, and although the surrounding country is remarkably fertile, supplies of every kind were scarce from the total ruin of the neighbouring Haciendas. It was gratifying to behold the change which ten * The shaft of a mine is always surrounded by a Galera, in which the tools, candles, powder, &c. are kept;, and an account taken of the labourers, who enter or quit the mine, as well as of the ores raised by them. In the Galera the Malacates (horse-whims) are likewise placed ; so that where two or more of these are at work, the space covered in is very c(»isiderable. Y 2 324 MEXICO IN 1827. months had produced in all these respects. In May 1826, Tlalpujahua presented one of the busiest scenes that it is possible to imagine : the population had increased from one to five thousand ; above eighty houses had been repaired, or rebuilt ; shops for the sale of English manufactures were opened in the Plaza ; there was a market most abundantly sup- plied with all the necessaries of life four days in the week ; and twelve hundred labourers found constant employment in the mines. Twenty-seven of the principal shafts had been already put into a thorough state of repair, and surrounded with the necessary buildings. In the Mines of San Estevan, Colora- dilla, Los Olivos, Capiilin, Concepcion, Santos Mar- tires, and Ocotes, the works had already reached the Vein, and ore was raised in considerable quantities. In the others, Malacates had been fitted up upon the most improved plan, and the drainage was con- ducted with the utmost activity. Of the extent to which the works of the Com- pany are carried, some account has been given in the Second Section of the preceding Book : it is,, however, necessary to add, that their contracts are mostly for the terms of thirty and thirty-five years ; that in all their mines they have a full half share, or twelve Barras ; that the Alimentos (or allowance made by the Company to the proprietors) are small, and are in every instance to be discontinued if a mine does not become productive within three years ; and that although amongst the many contracts held MEXICO IN 1327. 325 by the Company, there are undoubtedly some, from which no advantage can ever be derived, the com- mand of all the mines in the district was indispen- sable in order to exclude competition, the ruinous effects of which, in other parts of Mexico, have been very severely felt. Tlalpujahiia enjoys many advantages as a mining district. It is situated at a moderate distance both from the Capital and the Coast, in the midst of a country so fertile, that maize, which in Guanajuato and Mexico, sells for four and a half or five dollars the carga, (of SOOlbs.) seldom rises there above two and a half or three dollars. Wood is equally abun- dant and cheap. Mining labour of all kinds is lower than in any of the neighbouring States. Few of the mines exceed one hundred and fifty vaias in depth, and almost all are so situated as to facilitate their drainage by a single Adit, for a very consider- able space below the deepest of their present work- ings. The ores of some contain a Ley de Oro, so considerable as to raise the value of the Marc to twelve and sixteen dollars ; and in reducing these ores, the assistance of water power is almost always to be obtained. At the period of my first visit, two Flaciendas de beneficio (Santa Rosa and el Chimal) were com- pleted, in each of which twelve stamps were at work, capable of pulverizing twenty-five cargas of ore, (of twelve Arrobas, or 300 lbs.) in the twenty-four hours. Another large Hacienda (San Rafael) was 326 MEXICO IN 1827. in progress, with forty-eight stamps, and twenty- four Arastres, (crushing mills,) which it was thought would reduce from 600 to 800 cargas of ore in the week. I was very much struck with the appear- ance of all these works, which were planned by Mr. Moro, the engineer to the Company, and executed entirely by Mexican workmen, under the superin- tendence of another officer, (Mr. Enrico,) whose patience and assiduity triumphed over all the ob- stacles which the inexperience of the natives at first created. The water-wheel of San Rafael is twenty- sev^en feet in diameter, yet not a single European has been employed upon it, or upon the machinery connected with it, which now sets in motion forty- eight stamps, with a power that was thought insuffi- cient in former times, to work more than six. But both in this and in every other respect the Tlalpujahua Company has been admirably served. The director. Monsieur de Rivafinoli, possesses not only an active and indefatigable spirit himself, but the art of communicating a portion of this spirit to those by whom he is surrounded. I never saw more order and regularity than is shown in every part of his system ; and although the gentlemen employed in superintending the works are natives of many different countries, there is an esprit de corps amongst them, which it is really pleasing to witness.* The * The only ])luce where I have ever seen any confusion at Tlalpujahua is at Mr. Rivaiinoli's most hospitable table, where MEXICO IN 1827. 327 Mexican proprietors, many of whom are entrusted with the superintendence of the works in their own mines, have become most useful assistants ; and as the authority of the Church is employed wherever a change of machinery is contemplated, a solemn blessing being pronounced by the Cura, (a man of great talent and influence) upon the new machine, before it begins to work, each innovation is looked forward to by the natives as a fete^ at which those who have been employed in the construction of the new works, receive a public reward. Some of these details may be thought trifling; but as long as human nature remains constituted as it now is, more may be effected by attention to such trifles, than by the most beneficial projects when introduced without it. The conciliatory sys- tem adopted by Monsieur de Rivafinoli has given him an almost absolute authority in his district, and this, as long as the prospects of a Company are liable to be aflected, (as they always must be) by the power which its agents possess of carrying into ex- ecution their projects, may always be regarded as an essential step towards success. Doubts have been expressed with regard to the goodness of the mines of Tlalpujahua, and these, as there are no records of former produce, it is impos- sible for me to remove. It is difficult however to Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian are spoken in such rapid succession as to convey a lively idea of the tower of Babel. 328 MEXICO IN 1827. suppose, that in a district abounding in metalli- ferous veins, none of which have been worked to any considerable depth, whilst all are known to have been productive in earlier times, a Company which is in possession of every mine of any im- portance in the Real, and which is about to push its workings through a great extent of virgin ground, should not be amply repaid for its present advances. Its chances of success increase in proportion to the extent of its operations, as the veins are explored upon all the most essential points at once ; while the mining works, which are under the direction of an active, cautious, and scientific man, Mr. Burkart, are sure to be conducted with economy, and ex- ecuted with the greatest possible precision. With regard to time, a few months more or less are of little importance in an enterprise of such magnitude ; and I should think even more highly than I now do of the prospects of the Tlalpujahua Company, were the Directors in England to forego for a year the hope of immediate returns, and to devote the whole of that time to the completion of the great Adit, by which the drainage of two-thirds of the district would be effected at once, and an immense saving made in the ultimate expences of the Association. I remained at Tlalpujahua nearly a week, during which I visited all the mines which had been brought into activity up to that time, as well as the Ha- ciendas, the most distant of which, San Rafael, is MEXICO IN 1827. H29 situated about three leagues from the town. It was at that time unfinished, but in one of my subsequent visits I had the pleasure of seeing it completed, for I returned to Tlalpujahua both in September 1826, and January 1827, on my way from other districts to the Capital. iiSO MEXICO IN 1827. SECTION V. JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE MINING DISTRICTS OF ZIMAPAN SAN JOSE DEL ORO — LA EN- CARNACION — EL CHICO — CAPULA, AND REAL DEL MONTE. On the morning of the 12th of July, I left Mexico, and proceeded by the great Northern road to Hiie- huetoca, about eleven leagues from the Capital. On the 13th, after following the same road three leagues in the direction of Tula, we struck off towards the East, over about five leagues of wretch- edly barren and stony country, which extends to the plains of San Pedro, in the centre of which, on a very fertile spot, are situated the Hacienda and village of that name, where we arrived after five hours' travelling. The plains of San Pedro led us to another Pe- dregal, or stony district, of still greater extent than the first, in the midst of which, five leagues from the Hacienda, stands a solitaiy venta, where we had MEXICO IN 1827. 331 been informed that we could pass the night, but where we found that no sort of accommodation was to be obtained. We were therefore compelled to proceed, at a very late hour, towards Itzraiquilpan, a town seven leagues farther on, there not being a single Pueblo, or Hacienda, between it and the Venta del Pedregal. The road continued to be stony and bad, with the exception of a few miles of sand covered with a thin brushwood. About two leagues from Itzmiquilpan there is an abrupt descent, of nearly two English miles, covered with masses of rock, amongst which it is hardly possible for horses to keep their footing. We did not reach the town till half-past eight o'clock, having left the Venta at half-past three in the afternoon. Itzmiquilpan is remarkable for the beauty of its situation, and the richness of the vegetation for about a league in every direction around it. The town stands upon the banks of the river Tula, and is so completely sheltered by the neighbouring moun- tains, that it is almost a Tierra Caliente ; in which every thing seems to partake of the luxuriancy pe- culiar to that climate. The inclosures are composed of Peruvian pepper-trees intermixed with roses, and covered with vines, which produce fruit in great abundance, as clusters of grapes are seen amidst the highest branches of the trees. By the side of the river, there are some magnificent cypresses, almost equal in size to those of Chapultepec : parasitic plants too are found in every direction, and even the 332 MEXICO IN 1827. plumage of the birds appears more variegated. Itz- miquilpan was once a place of considerable impor- tance, as a manufacture of Pita* was carried on there, from which most of the great mining districts were supplied with ropes : since the Revolution the demand for this article has diminished, and the in- habitants have turned their attention almost entirely to agriculture, for which they possess great local advantages from the facility of irrigation and the mildness of the climate. The town contains at present about three thousand Vecinos,t or a po- pulation of between nine and ten thousand souls : should the mines in the neighbouring districts re- cover their former importance, Itzmiquilpan will participate in the advantages of the change, as it is the great line of communication between Zimapan, El Cardonal, La Pechuga, and the Capital. We passed the whole of the 14th at Itzmiquilpan, in order to rest our horses, which were much fatigued with the exertions of the preceding day. On the 15th we proceeded to Zimapan. From the moment that we quitted the immediate vicinity of Itzmiquilpan, we began to ascend, and continued to do so almost uninterruptedly for nearly five leagues. The chain of mountains which it is necessary to cross, is rugged and barren. There is hardly a tree of moderate size to be seen. A sort * Pita is the thread made from the fibre of the Maguey, t Vecino means householder. MEXICO IN 1827. 333 of low prickly bush, interspersed with an immense variety of the Cactus, of all shapes and sizes, filled with Censontlis, and other singing birds, growing alternately on a sandy or strong soil, — such are the characteristics of the vegetation, where any vegeta- tion is to be found. Nor is the descent on the Ziraa- pan side less monotonous or fatiguing. It is very steep, and the path, which is covered with loose stones, is so narrow that it will seldom admit of two persons abreast. On the whole road we only crossed two small streams, at one of which we halted to breakfast. The town of Zimapan is situated about twelve leagues from Itzmiquilpan, and forty-two from the Capital : it is the head of a district, the mines of which were formerly very productive. During the Revolution they were suffered to go completely to ruin, having not only been abandoned by the real proprietors, but worked by Buscones, or common miners, who, unwilling to quit a place where they had long resided, have gained a subsistence, during the last sixteen years, by extracting ores from the upper levels and pillars of the principal mines, many of which they have entirely destroyed in the course of their operations. With regard to the maximum of the Silver pre- viously raised in the district, I was unable to obtain any information that could be depended upon, most of the registers having been lost during the Revo- lution, when the town was continually changing 334 MEXICO IN 1827. masters. I am, however, in possession of a sketch of the principal mines, by which it appears that several of them have produced considerable Bonanzas in earlier times. For instance, Pamplona yielded 140,000 dollars in three years ; La Iglesia took its name from the church that was built out of its pro- ceeds ; and from Cerro Colorado the family of Bus- tamante derived its fortune. There are many others which it is unnecessary to enumerate. The only mine regularly worked at the time of my visit was that of Santa Rita, belonging to the German Company. They were driving a level upon the vein, which they had just cut, and were only waiting for the completion of the Hacienda de los Tolimanes, situated in a ravine below the mine, in order to reduce seventy cargas of rich ore, which had already been extracted. This Hacienda was formerly an old convent : it is built upon the banks of a river, in a deep Bar- ranca, about two leagues from Zimapan. The situa- tion is beautiful, the command of water great ; and there is attached to it a garden and patio, containing some of the finest orange, Aguacate, and fig-trees, that I almost ever saw. The climate, from the peculiarity of the situation, is warm. The repairs necessary at this Hacienda constitute almost the only expence incurred by the Germans at Zimapan. The mine of Santa Rita cost them nothing, and MEXICO IN 1827. 335 they were induced to select it from finding that it would begin almost immediately to pay its own expences. Their director, Mr. Spangenberg, who superin- tends likewise the neighbouring districts of San Jose del Oro, and el Cardonal, is a clever active man, and seemed to entertain great hopes of success in the works placed under his inspection. The Real del Monte Company has no silver mines at Zimapan ; they are forced, however, to keep up an establishment there, in order to superintend the works at the lead mine of Lomo del Toro, (the Bull's Side,) so called, probably from the shape of the mountain upon which it is situated. It is about four leagues from Zimapan, and very difficult of access. From the top of a high mountain, a zig-zag path, very narrow, and bordering on one side upon a precipice of from two to three thousand feet, con- ducts you to the mouth of the Mine. The descent is so steep, that a great part of it is cut into steps ; it is, however, possible to go down on horseback, as far as the entrance to the Mine, but from thence to the river below, (about 1,700 feet,) no animal was ever known to descend. The ore of Lomo del Toro is used as a flux in smelting, and twenty thousand cargas of it were annually consumed in the smelting establishment at Regla. The produce of the mine is divided into four distinct classes, Pepena, Quajado, Arenillos, 336 MEXICO IN 1827. and Metales Comunes. Pepcna is lead ore, which glit- ters, containing from eight to ten ounces of silver per carga. Qiiajado is dull lead ore, but as rich as the Pepena. Arenillos, earth sifted, and containing some particles of lead and silver, about one ounce to the carga. Metales Comunes, earth, or refuse from the mine, without any metallic particles, but used in smelting. Even this sells at Zimapan for one dollar the mule load. The Pepena is worth fifteen and a half dollars per carga, or five reals per arroba. The costs of extraction, however, leave the Company at present but little profit. The mine has been worked from time immemorial, by Buscones, who search for ore wherever they please, and deliver it at the mouth of the shaft at a certain price. Owing to this total want of system, the mountain has been excavated to an enormous extent, and the lower workings are now so distant, and so difficult of access, that the price paid for each arroba brought up by the Bus- cones, is two reals and a half, or one half the market price of the ore ; in addition to which the Company defray all the expences of mining tools, candles, and powder, and keep an English miner to superintend the works. It is now very difficult to apply a remedy to this evil, as the side of the mountain is so very precipitous, that to effect a communica- tion with the lower workings, by driving a level some hundred feet below the present entrance to the mine, would be useless, unless the ores could be raised to the summit by a small steam-engine. MEXICO IN 1827. 3S7 of about twenty-horse power ; and to this the dearth of fuel in the immediate vicinity of Zimapan would present a serious obstacle. It is a pity that a mine of such importance should have been destroyed by being worked in so desultory a manner ; but as there was neither method nor restraint amongst the Buscones, you find, at a very little distance from the surface, proofs of their having consulted nothing but the interest of the moment; as the w^orkings consist of huge excavations, unsupported, and in many places already in ruins; while the galleries by which they are connected, are so narrow that it is often nearly impossible to force a passage through them. There is one other mine, similar to that of Lomo del Toro, at Zimapan, but of an inferior quality. The Germans have a third, at El Cardonal, from which they are supplied with a flux for their smelt- ing establishment at Chico. The Mines belonging to the Anglo-Mexican Com- pany at Zimapan, having been subsequently given up, it is only necessary to state that, under the in- judicious superintendence of a Cornish miner, the buildings erected by the Company were situated upon the edge of a mountain torrent, and were swept away by the impetuosity of its waters at the com- mencement of the first rainy season ; an event, the probability of which the natives had in vain pointed out. None of the mines were drained while they re- VOL. II. z 338 MEXICO IN 1B27. inained in the hands of the Company ; and, when the effects of the panic of 1826 began to be felt in Mexico, Mr. WilHamson determined to abandon them, and to confine himself to more important un- dertakings in the vicinity of Guanajuato. On the morning of the 17th of July, we left Zi- mapan to visit the Iron Mines of the Encarnacion, situated about twelve leagues to the North-east of the town, upon the summit of one of the highest peaks of the Eastern branch of the Sierra Madre, or Great Cordillera of the Andes. Puljlic attention has only recently been directed towards these Mines, which were unknown before the Revolution. General Wavell was, I believe, one of the first to feel their importance, and the Mines now in the possession of the New Mexican Company were all denounced by him. Since that time, both the German and English Companies have acquired possessions there, for which (as I have already stated) no other formality is required than to open a shaft, which is " denounced," and to keep four men em- ployed upon it for eight days. This gives a legal title to a Pertinencia of two hundred varas in the vicinity of the shaft. The Real Del Monte Company has now the shafts of Las Animas, San Cosme, San Antonio, and El Carmen, which, together, give them a right to eight hundred varas of ground. The Germans are in possession of Santa Matilda, and nine other shafts, which will give them a com- MEXICO IN 1827. 339 mand of more iron, than the largest establishment that it is possible for them to form can require. The Anglo-Mexican Company had likewise de- nounced several shafts, but will probably give them up with the rest of the establishment at Zimapan. The mountain upon v/hich these Mines are situ- ated, appears to be one mass of Iron ore, so rich as to contain 75, and even 85 per cent, of pure Iron, apparently of a very fine quality, and possessing great magnetic powers. The rock is principally marble and kalkspath, being (as I am informed), similar, in almost every respect, to the famous Swedish Iron mines at Dane- mora. The Mexican ore is, however, so rich, that a flux will be required in order to smelt it, and some difficulty is apprehended upon that account. The German Company has sent to Silesia for fifty men acquainted with Iron works, and they intend to establish a foundery near the Encarnacion, upon a very large scale. It is impossible to select a spot more favourable, in most respects, for such an un- dertaking. There is an abundant supply of water, and the vegetation, with which the whole Cordillera is covered, is superior to any thing that I have yet seen in the New World. There is an amazing va- riety of forest trees. We observed ten different species of Oak, with Ocotes, and Oyamels, (Pines, excellent for fuel,) and magnifient Limes, covering an extent of country as far as the eye could reach. Provisions were scarce, but a Mining establishment, z 2 340 MEXICO IN 1827. if successful, always creates a population around it ; and, from the facility of irrigation, there is no doubt that the valleys between the mountains might be cultivated with success. The roads are very bad, and so steep, and liable to be affected by the rains, that it would hardly be possible to render the mines very accessible ; but still there is no doubt that, in a country v^^here the demand for iron is so great, and where the Mining Districts of Guanajuato and Real del Monte are so near, the speculation might answer. The English Companies will not commence their works at the Encarnacion, until their other Mines begin to pay. The depth to which the Iron-ore, so rich at the surface, extends, has not yet been ascer- tained ; and although I am not aware of there being any reason to question the abundance of the supply at Zmiapan, I have heard of another district near San Luis P(5tosi, that presented similar appearances, although, on sinking a shaft, every vestige of iron was lost at a few yards below the surface. From the Encarnacion, we proceeded, on the 18th of July, to the Gold mine of San Jose del Oro, which was formerly immensely productive, but which has been, for many years, abandoned, and in ruins. It has been taken, with the neighbouring Mine of " Chalrna," by the Germans, as a speculation, which, from its vicinity both to Zimapan and to the Iron mines, will require no additional superintendence ; while, should they be fortunate enoucfh to strike MEXICO IN itJ27. 341 upon the vein, it is certain to repay tliem for the very trifling advances which they intend to make upon this experiment. The ore of San Jose is composed of feldspath and copper, intermixed with gold, which is found pure, in very minute particles, and is separated from the copper in a few hours by the use of quicksilver in the arrastres. The copper ore is then prepared by fire, when it becomes valuable as magistral ; an ingredient, of which, in the amalgamation of silver, a great consumption is made. It is worth from eight to twelve dollars the carga. From San Jose we returned the same evening to Zimapan, which we left on the following morning for Itzmiquilpan, where a road branches off to Chico and Real del Monte. It was my intention not to have quitted Zimapan without visiting the Mines of El Doctor, Maconi, and San Cristoval, which have been taken up by the Catorce and Anglo-Mexican Companies ; but I was prevented by the uncertainty of being able to recross the river Tula, which is seldom fordable during the rainy season. Had a fall of rain taken place in the mountains during my absence, I should have been prevented from reaching Zimapan again, and must have given up my visit to Real del Monte and Chico, in order to return to the Capital by San Juan del Rio and Tula, at which place alone there is a bridge. At any other time I should certainly have under- taken the journey, for the district of El Doctor is 342 MEXICO IN 1827. one of great importance ; and the road from Zimapan although dangerous and full of precipices, is de- scribed as the boldest and most picturesque portion of the Sierra Madre, south of Durango. From Mexico to the Doctor, there are two routes, the one by San Juan del Rio and Cadereita, and the other a bridle-road, which is laid down in my map of routes, as given to me by one of the agents of the Catorce Company. The mountainous district commences on crossing the river Tula, a little to the South of Tepetitlan, (fourteen leagues from Hiiehuetoca,) from whence a succession of steep and barren ridges extends to the Indian village of Tecosoutla, situated in a valley, well watered, and abounding in fruitful gardens. From Tecosoutla the road crosses the river Pate, in the vicinity of which there are mineral springs, emitting a dense sulphureous vapour ; and from thence it runs to the foot of a bleak and lofty moun- tain called Sombrerete, upon which the Rancho of Olveira stands. The Rancho is nine leagues from Tecosoutla, and four from El Doctor, which it is however impossible to reach in a single day. The first of the four last leagues traverses a bar- ren and rocky plain ; the second winds up a moun- tain of porphyry and marble, so steep as to be almost inaccessible; and the third lies through a valley, covered with Oak, Ash, the White Birch, and the Pine, with plots of rich soil at intervals. Of the fourth, the first half is the ascent of the mountain MEXICO IN 1827. S4